Annabelle the Garden Fairy
by VeryBerry96
Summary: Annabelle felt terrible that she couldn't help the Guardians when Pitch attacked. But when there's a new threat to the children of the world, will Annabelle finally be able to help?
1. Prologue

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I went to go and see Rise of the Guardians today. It was fantastic. If any of you are thinking of going to see it, you really should; it's great! **

**So anyway, I had this idea for a story during the car ride home, and I wanted to get it typed up as soon as possible. I know this prologue is pretty short but hopfully the upcoming chapters will be longer. Hope you enjoy! Please read and review!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I only own my OC Annabelle.**

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Prologue

I don't really remember anything before I was born. I guess that sounds really weird, but I didn't just have a normal birth like everyone else. I remember waking up in a forest in the middle of winter. It was freezing, and the forest floor was covered in snow. I looked down and saw that my arms were bare, as the sleeves of the pale red dress I had on, which looked like it was made out of long petals, barely went past my shoulders or my knees, although my legs were protected from the cold by tan knee-high boots.

I sat up slowly, trying to make sense of what was going on. There was a long pale brown stick next to me, curved at the top in a hook shape, which I instinctively picked up. When I touched it, it suddenly became covered in green moss, and pale pink flowers spouted at the tip. As this happened, I felt something on my back. Turning my head, I saw two pale pink shimmering wings protruding from my back. I gasped and tried to flutter them and, low and behold, I started to lift off of the ground. I started to laugh, in spite of my fear and confusion, and I shot up higher, above the tall pine trees of the woods. I stopped after whizzing around for a few minutes and looked down at the forest, grinning at what I had just done.

That was when I felt something calling me, pulling me. I turned round and saw the moon, huge and beautiful in the sky. I couldn't look away from it, not that I really wanted to. That was when I learnt my new name. It's the only thing the moon ever told me.

I'm known by most children as the fairy at the bottom of the garden. But my real name is Annabelle, the garden fairy.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Coming of Spring

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to LovelyDemon and Queen of sharks.**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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**Chapter 1 – The Coming of Spring**

It was the last day of winter, the busiest day of the year for me and the robins. As usual, I took the youngest birds to Europe, which was where our hideout was. The older, more experienced birds went to the rest of the world, bringing spring wherever they went.

I stood below the exit to our hideout where the older robins had been teaching younger ones their magic during summer and fall. A few of the older ones had been out during winter to check out the gardens and to see where the younger ones would be safest to go. I placed two fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly. In almost no time, the main room of our underground hideout was filled with the red-breasted birds.

"Right everyone!" I called loudly so all of the chirping birds could hear me. "This is the real deal! Spring needs to be brought to the world today and not a minute later. You've all been working so hard these past few months to get ready for this, and I'm so proud of every single one of you."

A baby robin that had only been with us for a few weeks jumped forward and chirped questionably. I smiled.

"Yes Nibbles, even you," I giggled, and he chirped happily, before flitting back to join his friends who were all picking at a breadcrumb I'd found as a treat for them. Enter how Nibbles got his name.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" I asked.

I was answered by a large chorus of chirps, which meant a resounding 'yes'. I grinned.

"Then let's go!" I shouted, before taking off and shooting up the tunnel, followed by a flurry of wings.

After the vertical flight up the dark tunnel, only wide enough for each bird to fly up one at a time, I saw the light of the winter sky coming from above us. I pushed on, flying faster and, aiming very exactly, shot out of the large hole in the tree that marked the entrance to our hideout. I then had to begin the complicated slalom between the huge trees of the Black Forest in Germany to lead the robins to the sky. Eventually I burst out towards the clear blue sky, followed by the robins. With a nod at the leaders of each continent team, five groups of robins flew off in different directions. I motioned to the remaining birds to follow me, and we sped towards the nearest town.

* * *

Six hours later, I was supervising Nibbles and his friends transforming a small village in England. Cheddar, another young bird who was fond of cheese, was fluttering next to a leaf looking determined. I nodded at him encouragingly, and he tapped a branch with his beak.

A few seconds later, the branch started to show signs of life; sprouts of leaves began to appear, buds of tiny colourful flowers popped up. Cheddar landed on my shoulder, looking immensely proud of himself. I tickled his red chest.

"Well done you!" I smiled, and he puffed his chest out.

"You've not done half bad this year, Anna."

I turned round, already smiling at the recognisable voice.

"Sorry to destroy all your handiwork, Jack," I grinned.

Jack Frost jumped off of the lamppost he'd been sitting on, his bare feet touching the ground in front of me, causing it to frost up.

"Don't worry," he smiled, walking towards me, "I won't take it personally."

He stopped and stroked Cheddar. "This one of the new recruits?" he asked, and I nodded.

I was about to introduce Cheddar when he flew off to continue helping turn the village we were in to spring. Jack chuckled.

"Busy worker," he remarked, and I laughed.

Jack and I had become good friends over the years. We usually only got to see each other once a year, when the seasons changed hands from his to mine. We had a lot in common; we both helped to change the seasons, we were both made immortal in our teenage years, and neither of us had had our memories when we woke up after getting our powers. Well, that wasn't something we had in common any more, since Jack had found his memories hidden in his baby teeth that had been stolen by Pitch two years ago.

"So, how's the guardian job going?" I asked, sitting down on a still-frosted bench, folding my wings in tightly.

Jack sat down beside me, setting his staff down next to mine. "Not bad," he shrugged. "Bunny's still being a pain from time to time, but what can you do?"

I laughed. Bunnymund and Jack had been getting along for a while, but with Jack's attitude of 'fun before duty', they would never completely see eye-to-eye.

"What about Sandy? Is he fully recovered now?"

I had been worried about the Sandman after he had nearly been killed by Pitch. He had come back to save the day, of course, but Jack had told me he had been left quite weak afterwards.

"Don't worry, he's fine," Jack assured me, before starting to laugh.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You've never even met Sandy, and you're worried about him," Jack smiled. "It's sweet."

I blushed and turned away from him. "Shut up," I muttered. "I'm allowed to worry about him. He's your friend, so I'm sure he's a nice guy."

"Yeah, he is," Jack agreed.

"What're you two gabbing about?" an excited voice called from above us.

We both looked up to see a flash of green and blue speed towards us.

"Hey Tooth!" Jack called, and I grinned as she landed down next to us.

"Hey Jack," she smiled, before turning to me. "Hey Annabelle! Long time no see!"

"Hey Tooth," I smiled.

"What're you doing round here?" Jack asked.

"There's a girl in the village who lost her tooth this morning," she told us. "She's asleep in bed because she feels sick, so I figured I'd give her something nice to wake up to. Only…" she looked sheepish, "I forgot they don't use quarters in England…"

I smiled, pulled a one pound coin out of my pocket and tossed it to her. "Here, use this."

Tooth grinned. "Thanks Annabelle! Well, I've gotta go. See you this evening Jack!" she smiled before taking off towards this village.

"I thought Tooth sent the little fairies to collect the teeth," I remarked.

"She still does normally," Jack told me, "but she goes out herself sometimes now too. Ever since we all helped her out to collect all the teeth, she remembered how much she loved doing it herself."

I smiled in the direction she'd flown off in, before realising what she'd said, and turned back to Jack. "What did she mean 'See you this evening'?" I asked.

Jack frowned. "North's called us all up to the pole. We've got no idea what for though."

My eyes widened. "Santa? It won't be Pitch again, will it?"

Jack shook his head. "I don't think so. He summoned us, but if it was urgent then we'd all be there by now. It can't be anything too major."

I sighed in relief. "Good," I smiled. "I would hate it if Pitch attacked again and I couldn't help."

Jack shook his head again, this time at me. "You know that we couldn't have asked you to help Anna. You're not a guardian."

"I know, I know. I still wish I could've helped though…"

Just then, Nibbles and Cheddar flew over, and each tapped an end of the bench each with their beaks. It thawed immediately. That was when I noticed that the park we were sitting in had now been completely transformed into spring. I smiled at Nibbles and Cheddar, cupped my hands together, and they flopped into them, exhausted.

"Great job you guys," I smiled, and they chirped weakly. Jack smiled.

"They've done a great job for newbies," he said. "You'll be proud of them."

I nodded. "I am," I grinned.

I pulled some berries off of a nearby bush. Setting the birds down gently on my lap, I cupped my hands together and blew into them, my breath turning into pale pink power when it hit my palms. I sprinkled my fairy dust onto the berries and held it down to the Nibbles and Cheddar. The smell of the food seemed to give them a new lease of life, and they jumped up, gobbled them down and flew off towards the rest of the birds who were now waiting for me. I stood up, picking up my staff which was identical in shape to Jack's.

"I'd better get these guys back home," I told him. "The younger ones will be tired out, and those berries will only give them enough energy to get back to the tree."

He nodded understandingly and stood up as well. "I'd better head off too. Got to get up to the North Pole after all!"

I grinned. "Tell Bunny I said hi."

Jack nodded and unexpectedly gave me a hug. I was caught off guard at first, but my arms found my way round him to return it.

"I'll see you later, okay?" he smiled, before shooting off with the wind.

I shook my head, grinning, before opening my wings up and heading off home, the birds following behind.

* * *

As we were flying over Belgium admiring our handiwork, we swooped down to get a closer look at some of the gardens. As we flew over a small town, I felt a tugging on my heart when we were over a small house. I stopped, as did the robins. Dolly, one of the more experienced birds, chirped at me to hurry up as the young ones were still tired.

"You keep going with them Dolly," I told her. "I'll catch up in a minute."

Dolly nodded (yes, birds can do that), and took off with the rest of the birds towards home. I dove down towards the house I'd felt the pull from, hiding behind a shed in the garden.

Like all of us magical creatures: myself, Jack, Santa and the rest, we can only be seen by children who believe in us. Most kids, if they're lucky enough, get the chance to see Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. Recently, more kids had started to believe in Jack too. Me on the other hand…not many kids knew I existed. And after nearly 250 years with none of the people I brought spring to being able to see me…it does get lonely.

There are a few children scattered around the world who do believe in me, the children who know me as the fairy at the bottom of the garden. It's usually little girls who enjoy being in their gardens and around nature. The tug I felt means that one of these children lives in this house. Well, I may as well give them a little surprise.

Cupping my hands again and blowing into them, I pinched some of the fairy dust and sprinkled it over myself. A few seconds later I was only a few centimetres tall. I may be known as a fairy, but most of the time I'm the same size as a human my age. Well, my physical age; 15 not 265. Since most people who see either me when I've shrunk myself or the little fairies that Tooth sends out, people are now under the impression that all fairies are tiny.

Flitting around the garden, I tapped some of the flower buds with my staff, which had conveniently shrunk along with me, causing them to burst into bloom one by one, their beautifully coloured petals filling out. Bushes and trees grew shiny new leaves. The grass grew long and green. Some butterflies and ladybirds were already flitting about around the flowers. I flew up to the upstairs window and saw the back of a little girl's blonde head. She was sitting with her back to the window playing with her dolls. I quickly sped away back down to the garden. I tapped the ice on top of the pond to thaw it, dove in to wash off the fairy dust and burst back out full-sized. I flew back up to the window again, more cautiously this time, very aware that it was much easier to see me now. I tapped on the window, waited to check that the little girl started to turn round, and flew off quickly, spinning around very fast a few times to shake the water off, and sped off to catch up with the robins.


	3. Chapter 2 - Unexpected Visitor

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to CellophaneCatastrophy and NicNak428**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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**Chapter 2 – Unexpected Visitor**

Luckily I managed to catch up to the robins before they got home. After organising everyone in a straight line, we all shot down between the trees. Focusing my eyes on the hole in our tree, I pulled my wings in at the last moment and free-fell down the tree trunk, knowing that all the birds behind me were doing the same. As I saw the light of our hideout approaching, I waited until the right moment, when I called "Fan out!" and as we zipped into the largest room of our home, everyone shot up to the ceiling to avoid a collision. I waited up there, hovering till everyone else was in, before touching down on the floor.

Our home was really pretty, with huge wooden pillars holding the ceiling up and small individual crannies for each robin. The floor was carpeted with the moss and leaves that the birds would normally use for their nests and the ceiling had countless pretty patterns carved into it. Normally I would debrief the birds, but since they were young, tired and hungry, I decided to leave it and do it later.

I noticed that some of the other birds were back already. I knew it was the North America division when Rudi hopped over to me. Rudi was my senior-most bird, and was in charge of bringing spring to the USA, Canada and Mexico. He had a letter held in his beak and I smiled as I took it from him.

"Thank you Rudi," I said, and he chirped happily as he wandered back to his friends.

Some children leave letters in their gardens for me. Unfortunately I usually don't get them right away, and I can't write back until the robins find them when they're checking on the gardens. This letter hopefully wasn't too old.

I sat down at a wooden table and opened the letter. It was written on pale pink paper with stars and hearts on it. I smiled. I'd know that paper anywhere.

It had been a while since Sophie had written to me. I started to read the letter.

_Hello fairy!_

_I hope you're ok. Winter was really cold; I hope your wings didn't freeze! Jack Frost seemed to go all out this year._

_That's actually what I wanted to ask you about. Two years ago my brother and I met Santa, the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost. They saved us when the Bogeyman tried to turn all our pretty dreams about unicorns and fairies and stuff into nightmares. I was wondering if you were friends with Jack and Santa and everyone else. If you are, how come you didn't help them two years ago?_

_I hope you can write back soon!_

_Love from Sophie xxx_

I pulled a pen from a pot on the table and a piece of paper from a pile behind me, and began to write back.

_Hello Sophie!_

_It's really nice to hear from you again. I hope you had a fun winter! I'm sure that Jack made a lot of snow days for you to have fun with your friends and your brother._

_I do know some of the people you mentioned. I'm good friends with Jack and with the Easter bunny. I've met the tooth fairy once or twice too, and she's really nice. I've never met Santa or the Sandman unfortunately; Santa's always busy getting ready for Christmas all year, and Sandman's always making new dreams for children all over the world; it's always night-time somewhere!_

_I really wished that I could have helped when the Bogeyman tried to ruin all your dreams, but I couldn't because I'm not a guardian. Santa, Jack, and everyone else you mentioned are all guardians. This means when the children of the world are threatened, they will do whatever they can to protect them. They were specially chosen by the Man in the Moon for that job. But I promise, if the Bogeyman or anyone else ever tries to hurt you and the rest of the children of the world, I will do my best to help to stop them._

_I hope you have a good spring! _

_From the fairy at the bottom of the garden_

I folded up the letter, popped it in an envelope and sprinkled some dust onto it, shrinking it down to a size where a robin could carry it. I called Dolly over and handed her the letter, which she held in her beak, and a small pouch filled with the fairy dust.

"Could you deliver this back to Sophie's garden?" I asked, and she chirped yes.

Just as I was fastening the pouch round her body, Nibbles hopped over.

"No Nibbles," I told him. "You just got back. You need to rest."

But Nibbles wouldn't take no for an answer, hopping about until Dolly nodded at him.

"You sure Dolly?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Well…okay then," I agreed. "Dolly, look after him."

Nibbles chirped happily and flew up to my face, rubbing himself affectionately against my cheek. I giggled as he followed Dolly up the exit.

"Sure hope that little thing's alright out there," a voice with a strong Australian accent said behind me.

I smirked even before turning around. "Three guardians in one day? What have I done to deserve this?"

Bunnymund smiled as I turned to face him. "So, you saw Jack and Tooth, huh?"

I nodded. "They were in England. There was an ill kid who'd lost her tooth in the same village I was working in, and Jack being Jack decided to come see how we were doing."

Bunny rolled his eyes. "He's a nosey kid that one…" he muttered, and I laughed.

"He means well Bunny," I smiled. "You two need to try and get along better."

He sighed and sat down where I had been sitting a few moments ago when I had been writing the letter. "Sandy and Tooth keep telling me the same thing."

I sat across from him. "What about Santa?"

He grinned. "North thinks it's hilarious. If nothing else he encourages it."

I rolled my eyes. "Ever the joker," I smiled.

Bunny leaned back and folded his arms. "So who were you writing to?"

"I believe you nicknamed her 'ankle-biter'?" I grinned, and he chuckled.

"That little monster…" he reminisced.

Before he could say anything else, I interrupted him.

"Bunny, what're you doing here anyway?" I asked him.

He sighed and stood up. "I was wondering how long it would be until you asked that."

I stayed in my seat and just watched him, starting to get slightly worried. Bunny paced around for a while before resting his front paws on the chair he'd been sitting on and leaning against it.

"North's called you up," he finally said. "We need you up at the pole now."

I stood up quickly. "It's not Pitch again, is it?" I asked, my mind turning to the promise I'd just made in my letter to Sophie.

Bunny shook his head. "It's not Pitch. North told us that much. But we don't know what it actually is. He said he wouldn't tell us until you got there."

I bit my lip. "So you guys need me up there now?" I checked, and he nodded.

By this point, the robins were all eavesdropping shamelessly. I called Rudi over.

"Would you be able to look after things if I was gone for a couple of hours?" I asked him, and he chirped that he could.

I looked back at Bunny, a smile starting to form on my face. "You're not gonna chuck me into a sack and through a portal are you?" I asked, and he grinned.

"Might have to if you don't come quietly," he joked.

"Well, I guess I have no choice then, do I?" I smiled, although I knew that he couldn't have hidden two Yetis in our hideout without either me or one of the birds noticing.

I held out my hand to Rudi and he landed on it.

"The guys who went to South America, Africa, Asia and Australia still need to get back," I told him, "so when they do make sure everyone's safe and accounted for. If Nibbles and Dolly don't get back in three hours then come to the pole and find me. I don't know how long I'll be there so you're in charge till I get back, okay?"

Rudi nodded. I set him on my shoulder and walked over to a shelf which I'd been meaning to fix for a while. If one of the birds flew into it by accident it would tumble to the ground, which was about to be surprisingly helpful in the current situation.

I blew into my hands and sprinkled the dust on the shelf.

"If you need to get up north, have someone else knock the shelf down so the dust falls on you," I told Rudi. "It'll help you fly up there fast."

He nodded before flying back up to one of the larger ledges the birds liked to perch on. I turned back to Bunny.

"Guess I'm all set," I told him, and he nodded, before pulling out a glass orb.

"You wanna go by portal?" he asked, looked rather apprehensive himself, and I shook my head.

"I'll go by tunnel with you if that's alright," I said, and he smiled, relieved.

"Thank you so much," he grinned, before tapping the ground twice with his foot cause a large hole to appear in the floor beside him. "Ladies first," he said.

I smiled and flew up to the ceiling to get a better aim. I waved to the birds as they all chirped their 'goodbyes' and 'good lucks', before I shot straight down into the hole, Bunny following close behind me.

The twists and turns were incredibly hard to navigate at high speed, but somehow I managed to get through the grass-edged tunnels without smashing into a wall. After only a few minutes we came shooting out the other end. Bunny, being much more experienced than me, jumped out and landed straight back on the ground. Me on the other hand ended up shooting straight upwards towards a massive globe. I swerved to the side at the last minute to avoid colliding with South America. I turned round and saw some familiar faces grinning up at me; Jack, Tooth and Bunny. The Sandman was there too, and Santa.

I was at the North Pole.


	4. Chapter 3 - Awkward Glances

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to HarunoYuki and Hitsugaya Aiko**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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Chapter 3 – Awkward Glances

I landed on the ground next to Jack who was still grinning like an idiot. I punched his arm multiple times.

"You! You knew I was gonna get asked to come up here and you didn't tell me!"

Jack started laughing, and jumped into the air, starting to fly around the massive globe covered with little lights. I sped after him, chasing him round the globe to the chuckles of the rest of the guardians on the platform below us. Eventually I managed to catch him on the side of the globe that the others couldn't see, grabbing his arm and spinning him around to face me. There was only a small space between us and Jack's smile slowly faded as we looked at each other, his face turning serious as he looked into my eyes. I held his gaze for a few moments, before looking down and dropping my hand from his arm, a blush rising in my cheeks.

"You two alright back there?" Bunny called.

I glanced back up at Jack, and he cracked a small smile. "Yeah, we're fine," he called back. "She caught me."

I heard a deep laugh. Santa.

"Shall we go?" Jack asked, being strangely polite.

I nodded, and we flew back over the globe, landing next to the others. Santa Claus was smiling down at me.

"Annabelle, the Spring Spirit," he said in his deep, friendly voice.

I smiled back and curtsied respectfully, "It's an honour to meet you sir."

He held his hands out and shook his head, "No need to be so formal."

I looked round at the familiar faces of Toothianna and Bunnymund, and grinned at them. I realised that someone was missing.

"Where's the Sandman?" I asked, looking around.

Santa glanced behind him and rolled his eyes, before stepping aside to reveal Sandy asleep upright, floating just off the ground. Santa nudged him and he slowly woke up, stretching and yawning silently.

I bit my lip. "Sorry," I whispered. "I didn't mean that you had to wake him."

Sandy seemed to realise then that I was there, and he floated over to me, holding his hand out to me. I smiled and shook it.

"It's lovely to meet you too Sandman," I smiled.

He kissed my hand, ever the gentleman, making me giggle. I swore I heard a huff from behind me, but when I turned my head, neither Jack, Bunny nor Tooth was pulling a face or anything.

Santa clapped his hands together, "Right, let's get down to business."

I turned to him. "I was wondering about that. Why am I here anyway?" I asked.

"We have problem," Santa sighed. "A problem that you have special expertise in."

I frowned, having no idea what he could be talking about.

He looked at my confused face, and presumably the confused faces of the others. He sighed again.

"It's the pixies. They've escaped," he announced.

I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. "How? I thought some of your Yetis were keeping an eye on them?"

"They were," Santa said. "They do not know how they got out, but they did."

I turned away from the others, walking over to the railing that Santa looked over to supervise the Yetis when they were making the toys. "Damn pixies…." I grumbled.

"How long's it been?" Tooth asked.

I looked up at the huge globe, thinking. "Must be…60 years," I mused.

The pixies were tiny little grey creatures, fond of mischief with powerful magic for their size. They were fond of messing about with the guardian's work, as well as the work of other spirits like me and Jack before he was a guardian.

The pixies didn't seem like a big threat at first, so they had been allowed to stay roaming around the earth, traveling in small groups. But 60 years ago, all the small groups had joined together to cause major havoc. They'd scoffed most of Bunny's Easter eggs, bullied the little fairies the Tooth sent out, messed about with Sandy's dreams, ruined Jack's snow days, chased my robins, and tore all of Santa's wrapping paper for the presents. They had nearly ruined that year in every way they could.

The guardians, then without Jack, all came together and decided to banish the pixies. I was tasked with locking them someplace safe and far away from where they could do anything. Where were there hardly any people? At the South Pole.

Santa had sent some Yetis to guard them, and Jack and I had worked together with Bunny and Tooth to round them up. Jack and I had then combined our magic to lock them away inside a huge icicle that wouldn't melt and was practically unbreakable. The only way it could be unlocked was if Jack and I did it together, which we definitely hadn't done.

I turned back to the others. "What can I do to help?" I asked, and they all smiled.

"Well," Santa started, "the reason we find out about this is because Man in Moon tell us. At the same time he tell us you are to become guardian."

My mouth dropped open. "W…what?" I stammered, and Jack and Bunny laughed.

I closed my mouth abruptly, but shook my head. "You're kidding right? Why would he want me to become a guardian? All I do is help spring along. I don't bring joy to children like the rest of you do."

Santa, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny all looked at Jack and smiled, rolling their eyes. He grinned at me. I sighed, remembering him telling me that he'd said pretty much the same thing when we was asked to become a guardian.

I didn't join in with the smiling though. "I'm sorry," I said, "but I can't. I'm no guardian."

To be honest, I expected them to protest, but they didn't. Santa just nodded understandingly.

"You go home and think about it," he said. "The threat is not imminent. You come back tomorrow and give answer."

I rolled my eyes, certain that my answer wouldn't have changed, but I nodded anyway.

* * *

I was flying back home as fast as I could, anxious to check that Nibbles and Dolly had gotten home safely. I was over Norway, shivering from the cold, when I got whacked on the back of the head with a snowball. I squealed as the snow slid down my back. I whipped round to see Jack doubled over in fits of laughter.

"Jack!" I yelled, but I couldn't hide the grin forming on my face.

He sped off and I chased him, both of us now laughing. After fifteen minutes of playing tag through the clear Scandinavian night sky, we both plonked down on the roof of a house in a tiny village near the Skagerrak coast, both of us panting and still giggling.

"So," Jack started, "what's with you stealing my lines?"

I sighed. "Jack, there's no point to me being a guardian. I don't have a holiday like Christmas or Easter. I don't help children all that often, like when they lose their teeth or when they dream. I don't do something they especially look forward to, like snow days. I just bring spring. That's it. I'm not important."

Jack just looked at me. "You're joking right? Anna, if it wasn't for you, Easter wouldn't happen. Bunny would be out of a job."

I knew he was trying to make me change my mind, but it wasn't happening. When he saw I wasn't looking up he grabbed hold of my hands, and I looked up at him automatically.

"Anna, spring brings new life," Jack started, sounding more serious than I'd heard him before. "It brings hope. Yeah, kids love winter for snow days and Christmas, but they love spring too. Spring brings beautiful flowers and baby animals; the warm sun comes back and the days get longer. Kids get to go back to school to see their friends."

He placed one hand on my shoulder and kept his other one laid over my hands, ensuring that I didn't look away from him. "Don't ever say you're not important, okay? Promise you won't say that again."

I nodded slowly, not looking away from his icy-blue eyes. "I promise."

Our eyes stayed locked for what seemed like a lifetime, before we both dropped our heads at the same time.

"You…you want me to fly you back to the tree?" Jack asked me, sounding a bit nervous.

I nodded, glancing up at him and smiling, "I'd like that."

I stood up and held his hand out to me. I took it and we leaped off the roof into the crisp, night-time air, flying south back to Germany.


	5. Chapter 4 - Flashback

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm so sorry this took so long to get up! I've had loads of tests at school that I had to study for, but it's the Christmas holidays now so I should be able to get a few chapters up in the next two weeks to make up for it!**

**This chapter is dedicated to Ghost of the Bibliophile, CharlieSandler and kaze senju the wolfwarriorgirl. Please read and review!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Flashback**

We arrived back at the tree about half an hour later. I sighed in relief when Nibbles flew up to me, excited that he'd been on his first delivery. Dolly and the other female robins flitted around Jack, and we both laughed. As he said hello to them I looked around for Rudi to make sure he'd managed to handle the running of things while I'd been gone. He landed on my shoulder from out of my line of sight, startling me.

"Hey," I smiled. "Everything go okay while I was gone? Everyone get back safe?"

Rudi chipped a "yes" as Jack walked over, the female birds still following him. He smiled at Rudi who hopped off of my shoulder onto his.

"Hey Rudolph," Jack grinned, and Rudi pecked his shoulder affectionately at the nickname which was, ironically, longer than his actual name.

Rudi and Jack were pretty good friends. I had met them both at the same time.

I sat down at the same table I'd been at when I wrote Sophie her letter and watched them mess about with each other, remembering that cold January night all those years ago…

* * *

It was about a year after my birth. I hadn't really left the forest I'd woken up in since then, and I hadn't spoken to anyone at all, except from the animals that lived in the forest. Apparently I could communicate with animals and understand them, which was really cool. I had come across a small village on the outskirts of the forest, but I was too scared to go into it. The children there enjoyed winter, but seemed to be really waiting for spring to arrive, and when the snow just wouldn't melt, they all seemed really sad.

I'd been experimenting in the forest with my staff, and had realised I could melt the frost and ice on the trees, and I was teaching myself to grow flowers and new leaves on the trees, although most of the trees in the forest were evergreen pine trees so I hadn't had much practise. I had also noticed that when my breath turned into condensation on particularly cold days, it seemed to sparkle. It turns out that was due to the fairy dust, but I hadn't realised that yet.

One day I realised I felt really bad for the children, some of which were starting to feel ill due to the cold weather, so I gathered up my courage and flew down to the village. That was when I discovered I was invisible to humans. I was upset that nobody could see me, but in some ways I was glad; this way I could change the village from winter into spring without anyone noticing. I spent that day just wandering around the village, thinking of things I could do later that night. When the sun set and everyone went to bed I started my work, melting the ice on the lake in the village, knocking off the icicles hanging off the roofs, having small buds sprout in the gardens.

I was in the process of melting the snow that had fallen on top of a large holly bush when I heard a high-pitched chirping sound. I lifted some of the branched up and gasped when I saw a baby sparrow lying on the ground under the bush, its wing at an awkward angle, broken. I cupped my hand under him to pick him up and he looked right up at me, proving that he at least could see me. He chirped weakly, asking who I was.

"It's okay," I murmured soothingly. "I'm a friend. My name's Annabelle. You're gonna be okay."

He felt so cold, and I could see his eyes starting to close, so I breathed on him to try and warm him up. My breath was sparkly again, and it hit him on his chest. I did this a few more times till I realised that he was starting to change colour and his wing was straightening out. Worried that I had hurt him, I stopped breathing on him. His light brown feathers were darkening, and his chest was turning red. My eyes widened. Had I done that?

A few moments later he started stirring before rolling onto his feet, blinking up at me and looking rather confused.

I bit my lip. "Is…is your wing okay?" I asked.

He looked over at the wing that had been broken and tested it out, flapping it and raising himself a few inches up out of my hands. He chirped happily before starting to zoom around my head. I laughed, so glad that he was okay.

"That was amazing. How did you do that?"

I turned quickly at the sound of a voice behind me. There was a boy standing behind me, with white hair and icy blue eyes. He had a short brown cloak on over a white shirt, tan pants and no shoes.

"You…you can see me?" I whispered, and he smiled gently.

"Yeah, I can," he said, walking towards me. "I'm a spirit, like you. My name's Jack Frost."

He held his hand out to pull me up, and I took it. His hand felt cold but not uncomfortably so.

"I'm Annabelle," I replied, smiling shyly. I couldn't ever remember talking to another person, so this was kind of nerve-wracking.

Jack seemed to understand my nervousness. "Don't worry, I know how it feel," he smiled sympathetically. "Children can't see me either."

I smiled back a bit stronger. "It's not that…well, not _just_ that. I don't remember anything before a year ago, and I haven't talked to anyone since."

His face changed slightly. "You…don't remember anything from before you became a spirit?" he asked, and I shook my head.

He smiled again. "Don't worry. Neither do I."

The little bird that I'd rescued, who had been flying above our heads, getting the strength back in his wig, now landed on my shoulder and chirped happily. Jack grinned.

"Who's this little guy?" he asked, tickling his red chest.

"I found him hurt under the holly bush," I explained. "I don't know how but I think I healed him."

Jack was still playing with the bird. "I've never seen a bird with a red breast before," he mused.

"Me neither. He was a normal sparrow but when his wing healed he changed colour."

He raised an eyebrow. "So, you did this?"

"Not on purpose!" I said defensively.

Jack laughed. "It wasn't a criticism!"

I grinned, before my eyes fell on his staff. I frowned and looked down at my own. Jack followed my gaze and also frowned. I held my staff and he held out his. They were identical, bar the fact that his had ice creeping up it and mine had moss growing on it. They were the same shape and size, right down to the hook at the top.

I looked up at him at exactly the same time he looked up at me. As our eyes met, I could tell we both felt something. I wasn't sure what it was, but we definitely both felt it.

I smiled at him and he smiled back, the bird flying back over to my shoulder again. I had a feeling I'd just made two new friends.

* * *

Jack and I had talked more that night, and we did become good friends. We named the bird Rudi, and somehow the fairy dust that had healed him had apparently increased his life-span quite considerably. Rudi had been with me every day since, which was nearly 250 years, and he only seemed a few years older than he had been when I met him.

Jack looked over at me, smiling. "You okay over there?" he asked.

I blinked, realising that I'd blanked out for the past few minutes. "Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about when I met you two."

He grinned and walked over, sitting down across from me, Rudi landing on his shoulder.

"That was such a long time ago," Jack mused, Rudi chirping in agreement.

I sat back in my chair, folding my arms. "And we still never figured out why our staffs are the same…"

Jack looked like he was about to say something, when Rudi suddenly took off towards the nursery. The nursery was where the robin chicks were cared for and taught how to use magic. I sped off after Rudi and Jack followed. When we reached the nursery, everything seemed normal. That was before we noticed the tiny grey creatures in the crannies where the chicks should've been.

The pixies _were_ back. And they were here.


	6. Chapter 5 - Destined Spirits

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: A wee bit of fluff in this chapter! Hope you enjoy it!**

**This chapter is dedicated to Xaria and Gelace and Dreampaw, Vanessa Rowes and Applejax XD**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 5 – Destined Spirits**

The small grey menaces were trying to ride on the robins' backs, pulling out their feathers while they were at it causing the room to be filled with the pain-filled cries of the birds. I flew right up to the nursery trying to swat them off with my staff.

"Get off of them!" I growled, while Rudi and Dolly angrily flapped their wings at the pixies.

The pixies eventually seemed to get bored of tormenting the chicks and flew away from them. Rudi, Dolly and I were checking to make sure they were okay before Jack cried out behind us.

"Anna! The pixies!"

I whipped my head round to see the pixies starting to fly around the centre of the room in a tight circle. I frowned, unsure of what they were doing. I muttered to Rudi and Dolly to take the chicks into the main room to make sure they were safe. As they flew off, the pixies had become a sort of hurricane of grey, creating a very strong wind which sped up very quickly. My hair began to whip round my face and soon it was painful to keep my eyes open. Jack was blown off his feet towards me where I was holding on to a crack in the wall, also nearly blown over. He grabbed onto my hand so he wasn't blown into the hurricane the pixies had made.

The pixies sped up even more momentarily before a loud cackle filled the room. Jack and I forced our eyes open and looked to the swirling grey mass where the noise had come from. The pixies suddenly all fanned apart revealing a large grey cloak lying on the floor with a large mass of _something_ under it. I began to edge over to it but Jack, who was still holding onto my hand, pulled me back and behind him. He shook his head before holding his staff towards the cloak. He was about to fire an ice attack at it before a large group of the pixies, who we'd stupidly ignored since the mysterious cloak appeared, flew down and snatched the staff off him, giggling with their high-pitched voices as they flew back up to the crannies where the chicks slept.

Jack growled and looked like he was going to fly after them, but I held him back like he did to me. He looked down at my staff before looking back up at me and pressing his lips tightly together. I got the message; don't mention my staff. Either the pixies didn't realise I had one or they didn't think I was a threat and so didn't steal mine. I tightened my grip on it; if I needed fight to I was anything but defenceless despite what the pixies might think.

Whatever was under the cloak started to laugh again, a deep evil sounding laugh, causing both of us to turn our heads towards it. It was starting to twitch. I took a step back, as did Jack. The laughing got louder as whatever was wearing the cloak started to stand until it was standing straight. It was slightly taller than a normal human adult, so quite a bit taller than us. Whatever it was, it had long, slightly wavy, silvery hair running down to the middle of its back, and its skin was a kind of pale green colour, almost translucent to the point where I could see all the veins in his hands. It was wearing the grey cloak which almost came right down to floor, and a crisp white shirt which stopped at his elbows.

As began to slowly turn towards us, Jack held his arm out in front of me as if to shield me from whatever was coming next. Even though I was scared that I didn't understand what was going on, I still blushed and smiled slightly at how protective he was being. But my smile didn't last long.

The figure was still laughing as he turned to face us, an evil smile on his face.

"Annabelle the spring spirit and Jack Frost the winter spirit," he addressed us by name, his imposing figure looming over us. "So we finally meet."

"Who are you?" Jack asked boldly, his arm still out in front of me.

"My name is Jacobi, King of the pixies," he announced in his booming voice, the sound of his name sending shivers down my spine. "And I have come to finally meet my captors."

I frowned. "We've never seen you before," I called out truthfully. "We never imprisoned you!"

"Au contraire my little Annabelle," he smiled, making me grimace and Jack growl again.

"You may not have imprisoned me per say, but you _did_ trap my eyes and ears in that horrific icicle," he continued, gesturing to the pixies scattered all over the room, chattering unintelligibly.

He snapped his fingers and a pixie flew in pulling Nibbles by his tail. I could hear a commotion from the main room where Rudi, Dolly and some of the others sounded like they were fighting to get through. My guess was they were being held back by more of the pixies.

I shot up towards Nibbles, giving no indication to Jack that I was about to do so. I sped over to the pixie, smacking it off Nibbles with my staff and cuddling Nibbles close to my chest, kicking the pixie at Jacobi. He caught it and gently stroked the top of its head, crooning at it quietly. I narrowed my eyes, breathing heavily.

"Now, how would you like it if I kicked one of your little minions in the face," he asked softly, still looking down at the pixie, somehow managing to sound more menacing than he did when he was speaking loudly.

"My _minions_?" I spat angrily. "The robins are _not _my 'minions'!"

Jacobi raised an eyebrow and looked up at me. Jack had now flown up to me and was hovering behind me for support.

"Then what are they?" Jacobi asked curiously.

"They're my friends," I growled, gritting my teeth. "They're my family. I love and care about each and every one of them. And I would never let anything happen to them."

By this point Jacobi was practically dying of laughter. "Your _friends_?" he spluttered. "Please. They're your slaves. They do the small stuff you can't be bothered to do yourself."

I felt myself getting really angry, but before I could yell at him, Jack flew in front of me.

"How _dare_ you speak to her like that!?" he snarled. "Anna doesn't treat the robins like _slaves_. She treats them as equals. They _are_ her friends, they _are_ her family. I've known Anna for literally ages, and I know how much she cares for these birds. She doesn't force any of them to do anything. They all stay here and help her because they _want_ to; because they know she'll look after them."

As I watched Jack hold his ground to defend me, I felt the blush rising in my cheeks again. Jacobi smirked at Jack's angry face.

"How sweet," he chuckled. "The little boy's standing up for his _crush_."

I expected Jack to look embarrassed, but he didn't move. He didn't look down ashamed or deny what Jacobi had said. He just stayed where he was, staring angrily into Jacobi's eyes.

I flew up to hover next to Jack and slipped my hand into his, glaring at Jacobi myself, Nibbles fluttering next to us. "I think you'd better leave," I muttered to the pixie king.

He smirked. "What would be the fun of going without leaving a little something behind?" he grinned evilly before holding his hand out towards us, signalling to the pixies to wreak havoc. They obeyed his silent command, flying down from where they were waiting down to the crannies that served as beds for the chicks and into the main room where they angry chirps of the birds grew louder. Nibbles chirped that he was going to go help the others before speeding off.

Some of the pixies who had stayed in the nursery were throwing Jack's staff back and forth between them. Jack and I glanced at each other and nodded slightly, creating a plan without any words passing between us. Still holding hands, we sped towards the pixies, catching them off guard. I got there just before Jack did and snatched his staff away them. I meant to throw Jack his staff, but I accidentally threw him mine. We were about to swap back when a swarm of pixies flew between us, attempting to grab both staffs off of us. We flew in opposite directions, attempting to swat the pixies away with the staffs as well as our hands and feet.

I thought I had a clear shot at Jack to toss him his staff back, but just as he locked eyes with me he pointed behind me crying out a warning. I turned just in time to see a large group of the tiny grey menaces shooting towards me. I instinctively held out Jack's staff, squeezing my eyes shut.

I heard a crackling noise, and then silence.

Jacobi's deep laughter, which had been constant throughout the past few minutes, and died away. The pixies weren't jeering anymore. I heard Jack gasp.

I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I saw was that the staff in my hand seemed to be glowing a pale blue. Then I noticed my hands were a strange colour; a little paler, maybe even a little more grey than they should be. Then I saw the group of pixies that had been flying right at me on the ground.

Frozen solid.

In tiny individual ice cubes.

I spun round to face Jack and he slowly shook his head before motioning me to look down at myself. I did so, and gasped.

My dress had changed from its usual red colour to a sparkling white, as had my boots. It wasn't just my hands that were grey but my whole body. My hair had changed from its normal chocolate brown colour to shimmery silver. I turned my head to see that my wings were also sparkling the same colour as my dress.

I had transformed into a female version of Jack.

Jack looked just about as shocked as I felt, as did Jacobi. Unfortunately, the king of the pixies didn't stay distracted for long, yelling at the pixies to continue their attack, completely ignoring the pixie ice cubes still frozen on the floor.

Jack and I had to snap out of it, and we continued to attempt to keep the pixies at bay, with me occasionally freezing some that got too tricky. I was about to throw Jack his staff back, but a group of pixies went right for him. Jack did exactly what I had done, holding my staff out in front of him and squeezing his eyes shut.

Jack and my staff started to glow a warm red colour. All of a sudden, as vines dropped down from the ceiling and wrapped themselves around the pixies, immobilising them, Jack started to change. His skin became a peachier colour. His hair seemed to thaw and turn a dark brown. His hoodie turned a dark red and his pants a darker brown, similar to his hair. When he opened his eyes I saw they were the same chocolate brown as his hair. My staff, which had lost all the moss growing on it when it had left my hand, was starting to grow back its vegetation.

He locked eyes with me and I nodded, smiling slightly. I didn't know why, I didn't know how, but I couldn't deny it.

We had swapped powers.

Jacobi was chuckling again. Jack and I both quickly turned our heads to face him.

"Well this is an interesting turn of events," he mused. "So _you're _the ones…"

Jack flew forwards to join me, and we linked hands again.

"Get out. Now," I spat.

Jacobi raised an eyebrow at my tone, his smile faltering, but he didn't move.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," I snarled.

"Oh I think you made yourself _perfectly_ clear," Jack growled, backing me up.

I raised Jack's staff and Jack raised mine. Jacobi was starting to look very unnerved.

"Get. Out," we yelled simultaneously. "_NOW_."

Both of our staffs started to glow again, and a powerful blue and red blast exploded out of them, causing the room to be filled with thick smoke. Once it cleared we saw that Jacobi was gone.

"_You've not heard the end of this"_, his voice hissed around us. _"I will have my revenge, Destined Spirits."_

Jack and I looked at each other and frowned. What on earth did he mean by 'Destined Spirits'?

But that didn't matter now. What did matter was that the pixies were starting to look a little nervous without their leader there to give orders, especially the ones who had now thawed out of their ice cubes and had missed the last five minutes. I placed two fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly. A few seconds later the robins all burst in, causing a flurry of panic amongst the pixies. Some of the chicks seemed wary of me due to my new appearance, but Rudi, Dolly and the other older robins assured them all it was me. I smiled at my friends, who were _not_ my 'slaves' or 'minions'.

"You guys up for a little rodeo?" I grinned, and they all chirped excitedly.

* * *

Ten minutes later all of the pixies had been herded out of the forest. The birds had gone back into the tree to begin clearing up. Jack and I were still hovering about the pine trees, making sure the pixies didn't try to come back when we weren't looking. Jack turned to me, holding my staff out.

"Should we try to change back?" he asked, and I nodded, holding his staff out to him. We both held onto our own staff as well as the other person's. We both closed our eyes at the same time and felt a warm wind whip around us. We opened our eyes when the wind disappeared and saw that we had changed back to our normal appearances.

I sighed, partly in relief and partly in disappointment. Jack noticed and smiled.

"Admit it, you enjoyed being me," he grinned and I laughed.

"Can't deny it," I admitted.

We both flew back down into the forest and landed on a thick branch, sitting down next to each other.

"What do you think that guy meant by 'Destined Spirits'?" Jack asked.

I shook my head. "I have no idea. But I know someone who might."

Jack nodded, knowing exactly who I was talking about. "North. We should go and see him tomorrow."

I nodded in agreement, before biting my lip, thinking of something I had wanted to ask him since Jacobi mentioned it. Jack noticed my face had changed and bent his head to look me in the eye.

"Hey…you okay?" he asked gently.

I nodded. "I was just wondering…when Jacobi called me your 'crush'…you didn't say anything. I mean, you didn't deny it…"

I was blushing madly now and glancing up at Jack, so was he.

"I didn't deny it…" he murmured quietly. "…because it's the truth."

My head snapped up and I stared at him open mouthed. Jack looked up at me, a slight blush still lingering on his cheeks. He leaned in slowly and kissed me gently on the lips, only for the briefest moment before pulling back.

"Should we…get back to the tree?" he asked, still a bit red in the cheeks.

I nodded slowly, my head still trying to get round what had just happened. Jack stood up and held his hand out to me. I took it, still shaking slightly, and he flew me back to the tree.

* * *

**Well, I did tell you it was just a **_**wee**_** bit of fluff! Hope you enjoyed this! Please review; comments and constructive critism welcome!**


	7. Chapter 6 - Old Legends

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to firedrakegirl, Ana-chan n.n and Fallenlily366.**

**So, I have exams starting on Monday for two weeks. Fun times. **** So I probably won't be updating for a while. I'll try my best to get another chapter up next week but I might not be able to cause I'll be studying. Wish me luck!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Old Legends**

By the time we got back to the tree the robins had cleared up the majority of the mess left by the pixies. Jack and I tidied away the few things that were too big and heavy for the birds to lift. Every time I met Jack's eyes I blushed again and looked away. Every time I did I heard Jack chuckle. Apparently he got over his embarrassment faster than I did.

Once everything was cleaned up I called Rudi and Dolly over. Nibbles and Cheddar flew over too out of curiosity.

"Listen guys, I hate to leave you after everything that just happened, but Jack I need to talk to the other Guardians about the pixies and Jacobi."

We also both needed to ask North what the Destined Spirits were, but I didn't mention that to the robins.

I was surprised when I was met by a flurry of angry chirps from all of the birds in the room, not just Rudi, Dolly, Nibbles and Cheddar. They weren't happy with me leaving them so soon after our home had been invaded.

Jack walked over to us. "Why don't they come with us? I'm sure North wouldn't mind."

I sighed. "I know he probably wouldn't, but some of the young chicks couldn't manage the flight to the North Pole."

The chicks chirped in protest, but I ignored them, knowing I was right. Jack thought for a moment before coming up with an idea.

"What about your fairy dust?" he asked. "Would that not help them get there?"

"Hmm…that could work," I mused.

I walked over to the shelf where I had sprinkled the fairy dust when Bunnymund had come to take me to the North Pole. Luckily the pixies hadn't knocked it down. I picked the dust up and flew up to the ceiling, the birds gathering beneath me. Jack flew up to join me. I had him cup his hands and I blew into them to form more of the pink powder. Together we sprinkled the dust onto the robins.

"This won't make them fly any faster, but it'll give them the stamina to get to the Pole," I explained. "We'll have to do this again for the journey back though, and the younger ones will have to rest when we get there."

Jack nodded, and Rudi, Dolly and a few more of the older robins gathered the younger ones around to brief them on what would be happened. I took the opportunity to talk to Jack about what had happened. Or at least attempt to.

"Listen Jack…" I started, and he looked up at me, causing me to blush again slightly.

"I wanted to say thank you for standing up for me to Jacobi. It was really kind of you," I said, and he smiled.

"You're my friend Anna," he told me. "I couldn't let him talk about you like that. It was all lies he was saying anyway. Except for…" he dropped his gaze, looking embarrassed again. "Except for the crush bit…"

He looked up again, and the way he was looking at me caused my blush to flare up again. But before anything could happen Rudi flew over to let us know that the birds were ready to go. I walked over to the group of robins without looking back at Jack; not to be rude, but because I knew that if I did I would just blush again.

"Okay, everyone ready?" I asked, and I was hit by a flurry of affirming chirps.

I allowed myself to look back at Jack. "Could you follow us to make sure nobody falls back?"

He nodded, still smiling, and I sighed with relief that I apparently hadn't offended him by turning my back on him.

I flew up the tree trunk followed by the pixies and Jack. After shooting out into the forest and slaloming through the trees, I turned round when we were in the open air to check that we were all accounted for. Jack nodded at me to confirm that nobody had fallen behind. I nodded back at him and smiled a thank you before taking off in the direction of the North Pole.

* * *

It took nearly two and a half hours since we couldn't fly any faster than the birds could, and a few of the younger ones had to take a break by resting in shifts on Jack and mine's hands, shoulders and heads, the pixie dust not being enough to get them through the long, cold flight.

When we eventually reached North's workshop, the birds flew right in before us, the chance of getting inside out of the cold pulling them in. The cold clearly didn't bother Jack and, although it used to, for some reason it wasn't bothering me anymore either. I could feel the cold, but it didn't hurt or make me feel uncomfortable. It just felt like I had gone outside on a spring evening and had forgotten my coat; chilly, yes, but not freezing like it would be for humans coming to the North Pole.

Not that humans could ever see North's workshop. Thanks to the guardians' magic, a special force field had been put around the workshop to hide it from the view of normal people.

Jack and I landed on the roof of the workshop and jumped down the special passage North had put in especially for us flying folks. We landed right in the middle on the platform next to the giant globe where North and Sandy were already waiting for us. I saw that most of the robins had settled down on the top of the globe. A few were flying round the elves, confusing the poor things, and Nibbles and Cheddar had flown over to North who was now gently stroking their heads and chuckling.

Sandy turned round when he heard us landing and smiled before pulling on North's coat to tell him we were there. He turned and smiled.

"Ah! You've come to tell us your decision, yes?" North presumed.

I frowned, confused by what he meant, before I remembered that North had said I was to tell him my decision about whether or not I wanted to become a guardian. I'd completely forgotten in all the chaos with the pixies.

"Actually, we've come about something else," Jack said.

North frowned, unsure of what he meant. Before either of us could explain, one of Bunnymund's holes opened in the floor and he shot out, landing on the ground next to us.

"So what, am I last to the party?" he asked, grinning a greeting to me.

Jack shook his head. "Tooth's still not here."

North looked thoughtful. "We'll go into my office, wait for her there."

We all nodded and followed North to his office. I'd only ever been in once, and that was a long time ago, so I smiled widely when I walked in and saw the train set made entirely of enchanted ice. North chuckled at my reaction.

"You like it?" he asked, and I nodded.

"This is _awesome_," I said truthfully, and he chuckled again, as did Jack.

Bunny sat himself down next to Sandy. "So what's all this about anyway?" he asked, Sandy echoing his query with the question mark hovering above his head.

"We'll tell you everything when Tooth gets here," I promised.

Right on cue, Toothianna burst into the room, breathing heavily.

"Sorry I'm late," she panted. "Did I miss anything?"

Bunny shook his head. "Didn't miss a thing. They refused to tell us anything until you got here."

Tooth sat down next to Bunny and Sandy, looking up at Jack and me expectantly. North leant against his desk and looked at us curiously, still not having any idea what we were going to say.

I looked at Jack and he nodded. I turned back to face everyone and took a deep breath.

"The pixies attacked the robin's nursery."

That got everyone out of their seats.

* * *

It took quite a few goes of getting all the way through the story due to Tooth and Bunny interrupting every five seconds, but with a few glares from North we managed to explain everything. We'd left out the bit about us swapping powers; we wanted to ask North about that privately.

Bunny looked nothing less than incredibly angry. Tooth looked worried and was biting her lip as was Sandy. North was frowning, the creases in his forehead looking like canyons.

"So you chased them out?" he concluded, and Jack and I both nodded.

"But how'd you manage to overpower them?" Toothianna asked. "Not that I doubt your ability or anything," she clarified quickly.

I looked over at Jack. He thought for a moment, leaning on his staff, before nodding and standing up straight. He walked over to me and held his staff out to me, Tooth, Bunny, Sandy and North following him with their eyes. He smiled at me reassuringly. I smiled back and held my staff out to him. I wrapped my hand around his staff at the same time he wrapped his hand around mine. This time instead of closing our eyes we kept looking at each other, our eyes locked. I could feel the stares of the others as the warm wind whipped up around us. I smiled as I saw Jack's appearance gradually change and, judging by the look on Jack's face, the same thing was happening to me.

After a few moments Jack and I were back to the way we looked when the pixies attacked. We grinned at each other before turning to look at everyone else. We both started laughing when we saw the looks on their faces. Their jaws were practically hitting the floor.

We looked at each other again, still smiling, and nodded. I guess we had some explaining to do.

* * *

North was now sitting behind his desk. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy had gone back into the workshop to make sure the robins weren't teasing the elves too much. Jack and I were standing in front of North's desk, and I sort of felt like a school kid getting in trouble from the principle.

"So, you'd never done this before?" North asked us.

We both shook our heads. We hadn't had the chance to change back to normal yet, so we were still in out alternate clothes and appearances.

"Um…Jacobi mentioned something about 'Destined Spirits'," I piped up, causing North to look up sharply.

"Did he call you that?" he clarified, and we both nodded.

North stood up quickly and walked over to a bookshelf next to the door. Jack and I watched him closely as he pulled out a huge, very old looking book. He blew the dust off it and gently placed it on his desk so it was facing us. There was a title on the cover but I didn't recognise the language.

"What does it say?" I asked.

Jack looked at me weirdly. "What do you mean? It says 'Myths of the Guardians'."

I frowned. "You can read that?"

"You can't?"

North was chuckling again. "Annabelle, you won't be able to read it. It's a language only guardians understand."

Jack's eyes grew wide. "I didn't know we could do that!"

North smiled before opening the book about half way through. One page was taken up by a picture of a girl and a boy walking hand-in-hand in a forest. They looked very similar, almost like twins. The other page was full of the strange writing again. Jack started to read it silently. I folded my arms impatiently, tapping my foot and waiting for him to finish so he could tell me what it said.

I watched his facial expression change from curious to confused to shocked, before he looked up at me, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide.

"What is it?" I asked, and he started to shake his head.

"Anna…it's us…" he whispered.

I frowned and turned to North. "Care to translate?" I asked.

North walked over to sit on one of the seats to the side of the room. Jack and I moved to sit next to him, Jack still looking a little flustered.

"There is old legend," he started, "about two ancient guardians. They protected the children of the world long before any of us were born into this life. No guardians were needed for Easter or Christmas, as there weren't any holidays like that back then. One of the guardians, the girl, was the day spirit, and the boy was the night spirit. The girl looked after children during the day, making the sun shine and the birds sing. The boy protected them at night, bringing the moon and stars out and keeping them free from nightmares."

"What were their names?" I interjected.

North shook his head. "Their names have been lost over time."

I nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"One winter day, the girl realised that she was finding it hard to work when there was only a few daylight hours. She spoke to the boy about this, and he admitted that he'd thought the same thing about the short summer nights. They agreed to go talk to man in moon about this, but man in moon said they already had the power to do this. They were confused, until Pitch Black launched an attack on the children. During a fight with his nightmare minions, they somehow managed to transfer their powers to the other for a short period of time. Nobody knows how they did this."

Jack and I looked at each other, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: that's exactly what had happened to us.

"After they defeated Pitch, they realised the girl could now be responsible for all of summer, while the boy took charge of winter. The worked together to change the seasons and everything was well. Until one day they disappeared."

North stood up and walked back over to his desk to pick up the book.

"Nobody knows what happened to them," he concluded, answering out silent question as he walked back over to us.

He flicked through the book until he found the page he wanted. He read to us from it.

"_No-one knows what happened to these early guardians, but their legend remains. They were known forever more as the Destined Spirits. The last thing they've known to have done was to promise that they would come back one day; that they would send their power into two others when the children of the world needed them most."_

He closed the book and looked up at us meaningfully. I met Jack's eyes again and he looked as shocked as I felt.

"So…you're honestly telling us that _we…we_ are the reincarnations of the two original guardians?" I clarified, and North nodded.

"The pixies are bigger threat than we think," he sighed. "The children of the world will need us now. They need both of you."

I stood up and paced around the room. "If this is true then why didn't it surface when Pitch attacked?" I asked. "I would have been more help then."

North shrugged. "I do not know how these things work. But I do know that we need you. And not just one of you."

He placed one hand on Jack's shoulder and one hand on mine, looking at both of us intently.

"If you are the Destined Spirits, then we need both of you to fight. But first," he continued, looking at me, "we need you to become fully fledged guardian."

I locked eyes with Jack. He looked scared. I imagine I did too. But still, he reached his hand out to hold mine and smiled reassuringly. I smiled back, took a deep breath and looked at North.

"Where do I sign?"


	8. Chapter 7 - United Fate

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: So for those of you reading this who know me in real life (which I'm 98% sure is a grand total of one of you), I hate planning my writing. I'm really bad at it. Even when we're writing essays in school (where we get marks taken off if we don't show any planning) I usually write the essay first then go back and scribble down some "plans" once I'm finished. **

**However! A few days ago I actually sat down and planned out the rest of this story! So to fill you in, there will be 16 chapters of this story. The last three or four will be pretty long ones, as some important and hopefully awesome stuff will be going on in them, but the rest of these chapters should be about the same length as they have been so far, with the exception of (possibly) chapter 9, which might be a bit shorter than the rest for **_**reasons**_** *shifty eyes***

**So yes! Excitement! I hope you guys all look forward to what's coming soon!**

**This chapter is dedicated to QueenOfPears, demigod6, delphigirl689, ruler of the ice dragons, bookangel1624, ImagineDaydreams, cutie-psycho-girl, antaurilover685, and my friend Holly :-D**

**Hope you enjoy! Please read and review! :-D**

* * *

**Chapter 7 – United Fate**

"I'm not happy about this."

"Now you know how I felt."

"I didn't agree to all this fuss being made. You could've warned me!"

Jack shrugged. "I thought it would be funny to see your reaction."

I glared at him. I was just about to go through the official ceremony for me to become a guardian. North had told me and Jack to wait in his office while they "got everything ready." That was worrying enough, but when I saw a large group of elves stumbling past the door carrying a multitude of musical instruments between them, I began to freak out. Jack, being the lovely and supportive friend that he was, was now beginning to chuckle.

I sat down on one of the chairs next to the door and pouted, pretending to go in a huff. Jack laughed again and plopped himself down next to me.

"You never got all this fuss made when this happened to you," I complained.

He shrugged and leant back, his hands behind his head. "I was meant to, but they made all the fuss the first time round when Pitch interrupted. When it actually happened the elves weren't around; we were on that frozen lake with Jamie and the other kids after defeating Pitch, so it was a bit less flashy than North wanted at first. I don't think he minded in the end though."

He sighed, lowering his hands and leaning forward, clasping his hands together on his lap. "I didn't even want to become a guardian in the first place. I mean, I know you didn't either, but for different reasons. I was frustrated that no children believed in me, and I didn't see why I should protect people who couldn't even see me. I was selfish." He shook his head at himself.

I rested my hand over his and he looked up at me.

"You're not selfish Jack," I told him seriously. "You changed your mind and that's all that matters. And it's not like you didn't care about kids before you became a guardian. You still loved playing with them and making them happy, even if they couldn't see you. That's all that matters."

He smiled and took hold of my hand, squeezing it gently. "Thanks Anna."

I smiled back, managing to hold in my blush. I let go of his hand and ran my hand through my hair.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you something," I admitted.

He nodded. "Yeah, anything. What is it?"

"How did you know you were the Guardian of Fun?" I asked. "I have no clue what I'm the guardian of, or how to find out."

Jack smiled at me gently. "I didn't know for a long time either. It took North confronting me in here to even start to figure it out."

I looked up at him, grinning. "I hope you're not planning on doing that to me."

He smiled and stood up, picking up his staff as he went. "Well, I'll think about it," he chuckled.

He walked over to North's desk and picked something up. As he came back over to sit next to me I could see that it was a Russian doll with an image of Santa as the largest doll.

"North showed me this the first time I came here. He explained to me that all of us have a centre; something that makes each of us spirits unique and that is the reason for everything we do."

He began to open the Russian doll, reconnecting each section as he went. There were five in all, obviously each getting smaller as they went. The biggest one was North frowning, his swords crossed over his chest. The second one like the classic picture of Santa Claus; happy and jolly. The third was North with a cloak covering his face. The forth had him looking angry and the fifth was him with a kind smile on his face holding some sort of baby animal. The final one was almost like a baby with little rosy cheeks and big blue eyes.

"He said that each of these represents a different part of him," Jack continued. "The biggest one is how he seems intimidating and is fearless. The next one is how he's jolly, and the third one that he's mysterious. These are all things that people see him as, but this one…"

He picked up the smallest one and held it out to me. I took it from him and looked at it properly.

"This is his centre, isn't it?" I asked. "That thing you mentioned, the reason he's a guardian."

Jack nodded. "Inside, he's really just a big kid. He finds wonder in everything, like a child does. That's why he's the Guardian of Wonder. North helped me to realise that the reason I wanted to help kids was to give them something to enjoy; to help them have fun. That's why I'm the Guardian of Fun. It's the same with Tooth being the Guardian of Memories, Bunnymund being the Guardian of Hope and Sandy the Guardian of Dreams."

He held his hand out and I placed mine in his. He squeezed it again.

"You may not know what makes you _you_ just yet, but that's okay," he smiled. "You'll find it eventually, I promise."

I smiled back. "Thank you."

North opened the door to his office just then. He spotted us holding hands and he smiled.

"I am not interrupting, am I?" he asked, clearly holding back a chuckle.

We let go of each other's hands and quickly stood up, coughing awkwardly. North let his chuckle out.

"We're all ready for you," he announced, holding the door open for us.

We nodded and left his office, Jack shooting me a reassuring glance before we left.

* * *

Luckily, North had told the elves to lay off the instruments, so there were just a few on tiny brass instruments. Tooth, Bunny and Sandy were standing along the side of the platform below the globe, all three of them smiling like idiots. Jack squeezed my hand one last time before walking over to join them. Some of the yetis were there too, the robins sitting on their shoulders and heads. The elves with the instruments were standing next to the balcony, occasionally pushing each other with no warning, reminding me of the minions in a film called Despicable Me that Jack and I went to see.

North walked up behind me, a large book under his arm. He clapped me on the shoulder before walking up next to the elves who started playing their instruments. When North reached the top he nodded at me, smiling. I nodded back and began to walk towards him.

When I was about half way there, Rudy and Dolly flew off the Yeti they'd been sitting on and landed on my shoulders, chirping their congratulations happily. I grinned and thanked them. They flew off back to the Yeti just as I came to a stop in front of North. North opened the book in his hands as the elves stopped playing. Or should I say three out of four of them stopped playing. The fourth one got kicked into silence by one of the others making me smirk before I straightened my face out and turned back to North. He smiled at me reassuringly as he began to read from the book.

"Annabelle, do you promise to watch over the children of earth, guide them safely from the way of harm, to guard with your life their hopes and dreams, for they are all that we have, all that we are, and all that we ever will be?"

I looked North in the eye, not being able to stop smiling, and nodded. "I do," I promised.

I heard Jack and Bunny behind me whooping and clapping. Tooth was laughing happily and when I turned round I saw that Sandy was grinning from ear to ear, giving me a thumbs up. I turned back to North, who was also chuckling.

"Congratulations Annabelle," he grinned, and before he could say anything else I had Bunny and Jack tackling me to the ground, Jack thumping me on the back and Bunny ruffling my hair. Tooth was now doubled over in laughter, as was North, and Sandy was whizzing around the ceiling making fireworks out of his sand.

I managed to push Bunny and Jack off and stand up before I got bombarded by the robins fluttering round my face chirping loudly. I laughed and thanked them all before they flew up to the ceiling to play with Sandy.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Jack standing behind me grinning. He held his arms out and we hugged, both of us still laughing and grinning like idiots.

We all should have known that this moment of simple happiness wouldn't last for long.

A cold wind suddenly started to blow around the workshop, causing me and Jack to break apart. I frowned at him and he silently shook his head. It wasn't him doing this.

Evil laughter suddenly filled the air, getting louder and louder. Jack and I both tightened our grips on our staffs and looked up above the globe.

"Jacobi…" Jack muttered and I nodded.

Right on cue, the pixie king appeared in a small whirlwind directly above the globe, the temperature dropping considerably when he emerged. He looked directly at the two of us and grinned evilly.

North pulled out his two swords and pointed them right at Jacobi. Bunny did the same with his boomerang, growling quietly but loud enough for the pixie king to hear. Tooth was glaring at him (and believe me, Toothianna is _scary_ when she's angry) and Sandy had created a bow and a quiver of arrows and had loaded one into the bow, glaring at Jacobi just like Tooth was.

Jacobi sat himself down on the top of the globe, still smiling, and began to clap.

"So, you're now a fully-fledged guardian?" he smirked, continuing to applaud. "I guess congratulations are in order?"

I gritted my teeth together. "Shut up Jacobi. What're you doing here?"

"You looking for a fight or something?" Bunny growled.

Jacobi smiled 'kindly' and shook his head. "Of course not Bunnymund! Why would I want to fight you?"

Tooth's hands clenched into fists. "You tried to hurt Anna and Jack. You don't get away with something like that around us."

North nodded sharply in agreement. "You threaten one of us you threaten us all. We guardians protect each other."

Jacobi smirked. "I'm not here to argue with you all. I'm here to give the Destined Spirits some important information."

Jack and I both snapped out gazes up to him.

"How did you even know about them?" Jack asked.

He stretched his arms above his head, still grinning down at us. "The pixies are an ancient race of creatures. We've been around since the original Destined Spirits. We helped Pitch Black to fight them."

I smirked. "So they defeated you _and_ Pitch? You can't have been that hard to take down if two teenagers our age could beat you."

He smiled and shook his head. "They didn't 'take us down' as you put it. When we saw that they could channel their powers into one another, we left quickly to come up with another strategy. It took years of planning and observation, but we eventually defeated them."

Jack and I both slowly looked round at North.

"Your book didn't say anything about that," I stated slowly.

"No, it wouldn't," Jacobi chipped in before North could answer. "Pitch and I are the only two who know what their fate was. When they made their pathetic threat that one day they would return we ignored it. So the fact that you two can do what you can do…you can understand why it interests me, no?"

Jack glared at him. "So what did happen to them?"

Jacobi shook his head and waggled his finger at Jack. "It's not going to be that easy Frosty."

Jack fumed, and Jacobi chuckled.

"If you really want to know what happened to them then come and find me," he announced, standing up. "And remember, their fate is now yours, so you may want to be interested…"

He trailed off and he jumped off the back of the globe. Jack, Tooth and I immediately flew round to see, and he had disappeared.

Tooth flew back round to tell the others that Jacobi had gone. Jack and I stayed hovering where we were.

"Are we going to go?" I asked.

Jack shook his head. "He reminds me too much of Pitch, and Pitch was a liar. We shouldn't trust him."

I sighed but nodded. Jack smiled and squeezed my hand again before flying back round to the platform. I hung back, biting my lip.

I had a different plan.


	9. Chapter 8 - Teamwork

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to Aesanna, Tea is extremely Delicious, Deathly-Hunger-Jackson, little-miss-randomness17, lovelikewoe13 and RosePotter123.**

**Deathly-Hunger-Jackson has also written a story based on Rise of the Guardians called Beautiful, tragic. It's about Sophie, Jamie's little sister in the movie and it's really good! You guys should definitely check it out! Here's a link to it: ****: **** s/8813784/1/Beautiful-tragic**

**So, here's the next chapter! I'm really sorry if it's not as good as past chapters; I'm under quite a lot of stress at the moment so this wasn't done as well as I'd hoped. Slightly terrified about the next one…don't want to spoil it by saying why, but I want to apologise in advance if chapter 9 sucks :-/ Anyway, please read and review!**

**This was written pretty late at night so please let me know of any mistakes!**

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Teamwork**

It was already quite late by the time we'd scanned the whole workshop for Jacobi with no sign of him, and we were all pretty tired. North had some spare rooms next to his office which he offered to us. Bunny and Tooth denied; Bunny said he had to get ready for Easter which was just around the corner and Tooth had to get back to the baby fairies. Jack and I both accepted his invitation though; I thought it better to let the younger robins recover from the long, cold flight themselves without the help of the fairy dust. They were all quite happy sleeping in the workshop on top of the globe.

North showed me and Jack to our rooms. We had rooms next to each other. North said goodnight before leaving us to ourselves, nudging Jack and winking as he left. Jack blushed slightly and coughed, glaring after him. I chuckled.

We both sat on my bed talking for a while. We didn't mention Jacobi though, or any of the awkward tension between us. It was just like old times when we'd only see each other once a year. We gossiped about the other guardians, talked about old jokes and made up new ones. Eventually we said goodnight and he headed through to his room. I turned off the light and lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

I couldn't deny that Jacobi's comment had intrigued me. If he really had known the Destined Spirits and he knew what had really happened to them, then maybe it would be good to know ourselves. If Jack and I had some sort of connection with them then we ought to know. I knew I wouldn't be able to convince Jack to go find him, and I didn't blame him after what happened with Pitch. I didn't trust Jacobi either, but I really felt like I had to take this chance.

I sighed heavily and curled up on my side, facing the window. I was watching the snow fall gently outside when I spotted something standing on the window-sill quietly tapping at the glass.

I quickly jumped out of bed, picked up my staff and opened the window. The pixie just stood there quietly staring at me.

"Did Jacobi send you?" I asked.

The pixie nodded and pointed out into the wilderness. I bit my lip and looked towards the door. I probably should have told Jack where I was going, but I decided to go by myself. I could defend myself anyway. I pushed the window open fully and hopped out, opening my wings out to hover next to the pixie.

"Take me to him," I commanded.

The pixie nodded and sped off into the mountains surrounding North's workshop. Being very careful to avoid Jack's window I followed quickly after it.

* * *

I lost sight of the pixie a few times but eventually he led me to a cave in the mountains which you wouldn't be able to see unless you were looking for it; it was really well hidden behind all the snow and the rocks. The cave was like a labyrinth with seemingly hundreds of different tunnels. I would have gotten completely lost if the little pixie wasn't guiding me. It wasn't just cold in the tunnels, it was also pitch black, no pun intended; I couldn't see anything. I would have lost my way completely but luckily the pixies seemed to glow a rather eerie pale blue light in the dark.

Eventually the pixie led me into a large empty room and disappeared through a smaller tunnel. When I say empty I mean _empty_. There was literally nothing in there apart from rocks and more rocks.

It didn't take long for me to be joined in the cave by someone else, a familiar voice coming from behind me, no footsteps indicating that he was there.

"I knew you wouldn't have let those other idiots stop you from coming. You're the smart one of the bunch."

"Don't call them idiots," I growled as he walked round to face me.

He chuckled. "But you don't deny that you're the smart one?"

"Quit stalling," I snarled. "Don't you have something to tell me?"

He smiled. "You honestly thought it would be that easy? Now now Anna, I thought you'd know me better than that."

I tightened my grip on my staff. "Don't talk to me like we're friends Jacobi."

He pouted. "You mean we're not friends?" He started to walk away. "A pity…just when I thought we could talk about this calmly."

He whipped back around and lunged at me. I dodged out of the way and whacked him on the back of his head with my staff before flying up to the roof of the cave. Jacobi grunted and quickly rose into the air after me. Oh joy, he could fly. And he wasn't half bad. Damn.

I knew there was no point in flying through the extensive tunnels to try and lose him; he would know these tunnels better than anyone else and I'd just end up getting lost. Plus I still needed to get him to talk; I wasn't going to have come all this way without finding out everything he knew about the Destined Spirits.

I waved my staff around in a wide circle above my head before pointing it at Jacobi. Vines quickly dropped out of the ceiling and went after him. He managed to dodge past almost all of them. One wrapped itself around his leg but he slashed it away with his claw-like nails. That was the first time I'd noticed them. Creepy…

I took a deep breath and flew down over the cave floor, blowing my fairy dust over the loose rocks on the ground. As I flew back up the ceiling I raised my staff above my head and the rocks levitated up alongside me. I silently told them what to do and they flung themselves at the pixie king. One of them caught his arm and pinned him against the wall. I flew up to him and pressed my staff against his neck.

"Tell me _now_," I hissed.

He grinned evilly before pulling his arm away from the rock, smashing it, and flipping me over so our roles were reversed; me trapped between him and the wall, his arm at my neck.

"Make me," he muttered.

"Get off her!"

I looked over Jacobi's shoulder, as did he. Jack was hovering a few meters away from us, his grip tight on his staff, his eyes cold and menacing.

"I said get off her," he repeated, sounding calmer.

But I knew that tone in his voice. He was in the kind of mood that if someone made one false move he'd rip their head off. I chuckled, despite the fact that I was being pinned up against a wall by a giant pixie. There was the Jack I knew and loved. Not that I loved Jack or anything…Man alive, my brain was messed up. The worst possible time to have what Bunny called a "teenage moment".

Jacobi grinned. "Jack Frost. I knew it was just a matter of time."

I squirmed under Jacobi's arm while he was distracted and I managed to get free. I quickly flew up next to Jack, who smiled at me momentarily before turning back to glare at Jacobi. I did the same, and the pixie king smiled before charging straight at us. We flew off in opposite directions; Jack forming icicles on the roof of the cave and making them hurl themselves at Jacobi, me causing vines to chase after him. Jacobi, unfortunately, was pretty fast. He dodged out of the way of my vines and they trapped Jack against a wall, the vines wrapped around his arms and legs. I blew on some sharp stones on the floor of the cave and had them fly towards Jack and cut him free from the vines. He flashed me a grin to say thanks before forming a bundle of hard-packed balls of ice and throwing them at Jacobi.

Jacobi grinned again before snapping his fingers and disappearing. Jack had just thrown one of the ice balls but it passed through the air where he had been and hit me.

"Ouch!" I complained.

Jack dropped the rest of the ice balls and smiled.

"Sorry," he apologised.

Before we could say anything else we heard a strange noise coming from one of the tunnels. We looked towards where the noise was coming from to see a huge group of pixies heading right for us.

"Damn it," we both muttered.

We jumped apart again, and the pixies split into two groups: one heading for Jack and one heading for me. We both fended them off as best we could, but eventually they cornered me and knocked my staff out of my hand. Jack noticed and sped down towards it, throwing me his staff as he grabbed mine. I caught it, and immediately a warm wind filled the cavern. The pixies back away from both of us as we changed; Jack's hair, clothes and skin darkening, mine lightening. We both grinned at each other and nodded before turning our attentions back to the pixies.

After we'd swapped staffs and powers, taking out the pixies seemed to go a lot faster and be a lot easier. After a few minutes they seemed to realise they weren't going to win so most of them sped away through the tunnels. A few brave ones (or stupid depending on how you look at it) stayed behind and attempted to face us but they were no trouble; I was beginning to quite enjoy turning them into pixie ice cubes.

Eventually the last pixie fled. As Jack and I landed on the floor of the cave, Jacobi's evil laughter seemed to seep in from all directions.

"That's it, Destined Spirits," it chuckled. "You're much more powerful when you work together…"

It trailed off, leaving Jack and I confused.

"Why would he encourage us?" I wondered aloud.

Jack shrugged. "I don't know and I doubt I want to know. I seriously don't trust him." He frowned at me. "Which is why I'm very annoyed that you came out here."

I smiled meekly. "Sorry…but I had to. I have to know what Jacobi meant about the two original Destined Spirits."

"And did you find out?" Jack asked.

I looked down. "…No."

He sighed. "Exactly. I knew he wouldn't tell you."

I looked back up at him, frowning. "Why are you here exactly?"

"I followed you," he answered simply. "I know you better than you think Anna. I knew you go see Jacobi even though I said we shouldn't. I couldn't let you face him on your own." He smiled and squeezed my shoulder. "We're a team, right?"

I smiled back and nodded. "Yeah…thanks Jack."

I looked up at the tunnel I'd flown in from. "Please tell me you know the way back out of here, cause I've got no clue."

He grinned and tapped the side of his head with his fist. "Of course I do. Photographic memory." He held his hand out to me. "Come on."

I smiled again and took his hand, and he began to lead me back to North's workshop.


	10. Chapter 9 - This is new to me

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: You guys have no idea how worried I am about this chapter. I've never written stuff like this before so I am so so so so so so so so so so sooooooooooo sorry if this royally sucks. There is a very large chance I am going to end up editing the life out of this thing, especially if I don't get many reviews on this. I'm not hinting (not much anyway) but I seriously would appreciate the feedback, on this chapter especially. Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh h! Scared! :-(**

**And I'm sorry that this is shorter than normal! The next few should be a bit longer.**

**Well, I hope you all like it…. I'm off to go hide in a corner with a very large packet of cookies.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Kori-Luna-Rose19 and Ghost 5926.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dreamworks owns Rise of the Guardians. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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**Chapter 9 – This is new to me…**

Luckily Jack was being serious when he said he had a photographic memory, and it only took him a few minutes to navigate us out of the maze of tunnels. Like last time I couldn't see anything, but Jack held onto my hand the whole time, and I trusted him to guide me in the right direction.

We got back to North's workshop and all the lights were out. Everyone must have been asleep, so that was a bit of a relief; less chance of us getting caught.

Jack had been smart and closed his window behind him. I on the other hand had forgotten and left my window wide open, meaning my room was now freezing cold. We silently ducked back in the window and touched down gently on the floor, me closing the window behind us. I realised that we hadn't given each other our staffs back so I held Jack's out to him. He took it and passed me mine and we immediately shifted back to normal.

Jack held a finger to his lips, motioning for me to be quiet before he opened the door out to the hall and waved his hand to for me to follow him. We both tiptoed down the hall to North's office. Jack reached for a small white box on top of his bookcase before we quickly and quietly made our way back the way we came, opting to sit in Jack's room instead of mine since the temperature in mine was close to the same as the inside of an iceberg.

We sat sown on Jack's bed and he opened the box he'd taken from North's office. It was a small first-aid kit. Jack began to gently clean up the few small cuts on my face that I'd got from the fight with the pixies with a cotton pad. He was so careful not to hurt me; when I winced once he apologised straight away and continued even more tenderly. It was so sweet. Of course, me being me, I blushed. Jack chuckled.

"What're you getting flustered about this time?" he asked, a hint of teasing in his voice.

I glared at him. "I'm not getting flustered," I replied quickly, the heat in my cheeks fading.

He threw the cotton pad into the trash can next to his bed and sat back with his weight on his hands, a mischievous grin on his face.

"You're a really bad liar you know," he smiled.

I took another cotton pad out of the box. "Shut up and keep still," I muttered.

He sat up and did as I asked, and I started to clean up his cuts. He had less than me, having more experience in fighting than I did, but some of the few he did have were pretty bad. I tried to be as gentle as I could, and apparently I managed as he didn't wince once.

"Thanks," he smiled as I leaned back when I'd finished.

I smiled back and turned around to put the bloody cotton pad in the trash.

"Anna, your head!" Jack said suddenly.

I turned back to face him and touched the back of my head, wincing at the sharp pain. Examining my hand I saw there was quite a lot of blood on it.

"When did he do that?" Jack asked angrily.

I frowned. "Must've been when he flipped me and held me against the wall. My head did hit a rock but I wasn't really paying much attention."

He sighed and grabbed a wad of tissues out of the box. "Turn around."

I did as he said. I tensed as he touched the tender cut on the back of my head, dabbing at it with the tissues.

"Sorry," he murmured before touching it again more gently.

I tried to relax, knowing that if I tensed up it would just hurt more. I let out a breath I didn't even realise I was holding and let my shoulders drop.

We sat in silence for a few minutes as Jack wiped the blood away from the back of my head. He stopped for a few moments before a different sensation replaced the dapping; the gentle brush of a comb.

"I'll get the dried blood out of your hair," he explained quietly.

I didn't say anything; I just sat there as he slowly pulled the comb through my hair. I stared down at my lap and smiled slightly. Even when he was just combing my hair he was so sweet about it. I blushed again, and was grateful that nobody could see me; if Bunny was here right now he'd have a field day with teasing me.

I closed my eyes and calmed my breathing, not wanting Jack to see how nervous I was getting. I was concentrating so much on breathing evenly that I didn't notice Jack's fingers replacing the teeth of the comb. I shivered and my eyes shot open but I didn't turn around.

"I think I got it all out," he murmured.

"…Thanks."

I slowly turned round to face him. He kept his hand on the back of my head, looking into my eyes. I swallowed, my heart speeding up. He slowly pulled me closer to him, leaned in and kissed me. Even though I had kind of guessed he was going to do that, it still took me a few moments for my brain to register the fact that I was being kissed and for me to start to kiss him back.

We both pulled away at the same time to get a lungful of air, and we both smiled.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a crush," Jack grinned.

I groaned and punched him on the arm. "You just had to go and ruin the moment, didn't you?"

He chuckled and shrugged. "What can I say? I'm not exactly used to these situations."

I sighed. "Yeah, me neither," I admitted.

His face turned serious again. "Do you actually…you know…" he looked down, embarrassed. "…like me?"

I blushed again. I seriously had to stop doing that. I took a deep breath. "…Yeah. Yeah, I do Jack."

He looked back up at me and he held my gaze for a few moments. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Then his face split into a grin.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you said that," he smiled.

I laughed. "I'm kinda relieved I actually managed to say it," I admitted.

Jack chuckled before leaning back, putting his weight on his arms.

"I hate to drop everything back down to reality but what're we gonna do about Jacobi?"

I sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. You were right about him being a liar and all, but I don't think he was lying about knowing what happened to the Destined Spirits. If he does know then we need to find out."

Jack frowned. "What makes you think that he was telling the truth?"

I bit my lip. "I…I'm not sure. I just feel that he was." I shook my head and dropped it into my hands. "Sorry, I know I'm not making any sense."

Jack leaned forward again and squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry. Listen, if you say that you think he's telling the truth then I believe you. We'll keep looking for him and we'll fight him and the pixies until he tells us what we want to know."

I looked up and smiled. "Thanks Jack."

He smiled back and kissed me on the forehead. I started to giggle before biting my tongue, knowing how silly and girly I must've sounded. Jack laughed before looking up at the clock on the wall. I followed his gaze before standing up.

"It's really late. I'd better get back to my room," I said.

Jack stood up too. He seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Um…you could always sleep in here if you wanted," he said quietly.

My eyes widened and I blushed madly. Jack realised what he'd said and blushed too.

"No! Not like that…um…I just meant cause your room's really cold and stuff…" He looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry, it was just an idea. You don't have to."

I bit my lip. He was right, my room _was_ really cold. I was just worried this was going to be really awkward.

But I knew Jack. And I knew he wouldn't try anything, so I took a deep breath and nodded.

"That would be great, thanks."

He looked up, his cheeks still slightly red, and smiled shyly.

Neither of us looked like we were going to move, so I did first, walking back over to the bed and laying down, tucking my wings in and curling up with my back facing Jack. A few moments later the light went out and I felt Jack lay down on the other side of the bed.

We both lay in silence for a few minutes, just listening to each other breathing. At one point Jack put his hand on my shoulder. When I didn't move or protest he moved it down to my waist before slowly snaking his arm around my stomach. I gently leant back until I felt my back press against his chest. Nothing else happened; he just held me. Neither of us said a word or even turn to face each other.

We didn't move from the position all night. Soon I felt my eyes getting heavy so I closed them and drifted off to sleep.

It was the best night's sleep I'd had in a while.


	11. Chapter 10 - The Sandman

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to nothing neW undeR thE sunN, CreativeSpirit28 and Super-Dash. Super-Dash was logged on as a guest so I'll reply to their review here.**

**Thank you so much for your review! I'm seriously glad that you liked the last chapter, and I really hope you like this one too! You actually provided the idea for the beginning of this chapter; I hadn't even thought of it! And yay! Cookie! *NOM.* **

**A special thanks to bookangel1624 and Deathly-Hunger-Jackson who, along with Super-Dash, reviewed the last chapter and really gave me encouragement; thank you guys so much!**

**Thank you also to my friend Holly who has been reading all these chapters and giving me feedback on them. Thanks a bunch Holly; you be awesomeness and stuff!**

**Hope you guys like this chapter! It's mostly filler, but I hope you still like it! Please read and review!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 10 – The Sandman**

Jack must have only woken up a few minutes before me. It was him scuffling about that woke me up. He'd opened the curtains and was now in the small bathroom that was joined onto his room; I could hear the water running.

I sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, vaguely wondering if Sandy had visited us last night. I blushed again at what he might have thought if he'd seen me and Jack curled up together.

A smile pricked at the corners of my mouth as I remembered what had happened last night. Jack had…kissed me. I couldn't stop smiling when I thought about it. I know he'd kissed me before, but this time it had been different. Mainly because I'd actually kissed him back this time and not just sat there like a complete idiot.

As I stretched to wake myself up properly Jack walked back though. He smiled when he saw I was awake.

"Morning," he said.

I smiled back. "Morning."

Before either of us could say anything else there was a loud banging at the door, and Bunny's panicked voice rang out loudly.

"Jack! Get your icy butt out here right now! Anna's gone!"

I facepalmed. I should've known if either Bunny or Tooth had seen my empty room they'd have overreacted. Jack rolled his eyes and went to open the door. Bunny kept knocking at thin air for a few moments before he realised the door was now open and Jack was leaning against the doorframe looking anything but worried.

"Morning Kangaroo," he smiled.

Bunny looked like he was going to rip his head off. "This is no time for jokes!" he yelled. "We have no idea where Anna is and…"

That was when he noticed me sitting on Jack's bed. I waved and grinned.

"Morning drama-queen!" I chuckled.

Bunny groaned and slumped against the corridor wall. "So you ain't kidnapped?"

I looked down at myself. "Not last time I checked."

"And you didn't run off looking for Jacobi yourself?" he continued.

"…I'm here now, aren't I?" I answer after a few moments of silence.

Bunny didn't seem to notice my pause, and he sighed. "I'll go tell the elves to call off the search party," he said, muttering as he walked off.

He stopped suddenly before walking backwards back to the door and looking back in.

"What're you doing in there anyway?" he asked, before starting to chuckle without even giving either of us a chance to answer.

"Fun night Jacky?" he grinned, punching Jack on the shoulder.

This time it was me and Jack who looked like we were going to rip his bunny ears off. Jack slammed the door in his face as he continued to laugh.

"The platform in front of the globe in ten minutes!" he called through the door in between chuckles. "North's called a meeting!"

Jack flopped face down on the bed next to me. "If he starts spreading rumours then I'm not going to be responsible for my actions," he muttered into the blanket on the bed.

I rolled him over and he blinked up at me.

"Don't worry," I told him. "Easter's just around the corner. Bunny's gonna be too busy to gossip."

"I hope you're right," he sighed before standing up. "We'd better get to that meeting."

He held his hand out to me, smiling again. I smiled back and took it, and he pulled me up. We walked to the meeting like that, hand in hand.

* * *

"So what, we've just got to carry on like nothing happened? That doesn't seem right."

Tooth sighed. "We're not carrying on like nothing happened. We're just doing what needs to be done. The truth is Anna, there're more kids these days than there ever has been. You have the robins, I have the fairies and North has the yetis. Mund has nobody to help him."

I shook my head as I picked up another egg and dropped it into the basket I was carrying. "I'm not saying we shouldn't help Bunny out. I'm just saying that it seems like nobody's taking the threat of the pixies seriously."

Tooth coaxed a few eggs out from under a bush. "I know that it doesn't seem fair, but Easter has to come first. Plus, if the pixies are anything like how they were last time then they're probably gonna try to wreck it. It makes more sense if we're all here."

I nodded in defeat. "I guess you're right…hey! Come back here!" I yelled before chasing after an egg that had ran off.

North had told us all that we were to help Bunnymund with painting the Easter eggs. Tooth and I were catching them (or at least attempting to) and Jack and Sandy were helping Bunny with the actual painting. North wasn't here, saying he would try to monitor the pixies' whereabouts from the workshop. I whispered to him before we left about the cave in the mountains and then took off down one of Bunny's holes in the ground which lead to his warren before he could ask any questions. We'd been here a few hours already and we seemed to be getting into the swing of things.

Of course, as I'm sure you can guess, that didn't last too long.

A large group of eggs which had already been painted ran back out into the clearing where we were working. They all seemed to be panicking. Bunny groaned, yelling, "Not this again!" before a swarm of pixies appeared seemingly out of nowhere and started to mess with the eggs.

Bunny pulled his boomerang out and started hurling it at the menaces. He then pulled out a few of his egg grenades threw them, creating a smoke-screen for me, Jack, Tooth and Sandy to attack from.

Tooth was punching and kicking away at the pixies. She may look innocent enough but I swear she's got a black belt in every martial art there is, or it certainly looked like it! Sandy was creating all sorts of weapons out of his sand and firing, shooting, slamming and swinging them at the tiny grey creatures, sending them flying back into the walls of the warren. Bunny was still hacking away at them with his boomerang. But the strange thing was, each of them seemed to only have a small group of pixies to deal with.

The majority of the pixies were honing in on me and Jack.

We did our best to fight them off, but we both knew the truth: we were much more powerful after we'd swapped powers. As soon as we got a chance to do so, we did. The number of pixies dwindled rather quickly after that, and soon they all fled from the warren.

Jack, Tooth, Sandy and I landed back on the ground next to Bunny. Thankfully most of the eggs were fine, and not too much of the warren had been messed with. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy were all staring at me and Jack.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to seeing you guys swap," Tooth remarked, and Bunny and Sandy nodded in agreement.

Jack and I grinned at each other and threw our staffs back, changing back to normal instantly.

"I don't think we're gonna get used to it either," Jack admitted, and I nodded in agreement.

Bunny bent down to pick up and armful of the eggs that had scattered. Once the pixies had gone they had all huddled round him for comfort.

"Aw, even Bunny has a soft side," I teased.

He rolled his eyes at me before walking back to where the boys had been painting.

"Come on everyone! Back to work!" he called.

Sandy, Tooth, Jack and I followed him back to start our jobs again.

* * *

Although we knew that the pixies were probably going to start causing a lot more trouble, none of us expected the scale of the attacks to be what they were. They were messing us about pretty much every other day, from continuing to mess up Bunny's work for Easter to repeatedly attempting to wreck Tooth and the fairies' job of taking children's baby teeth to taunting and teasing the elves and yetis on the occasions that they managed to sneak into the workshop without North noticing.

The weird thing was that every time the pixies attacked any of the other guardians bar me and Jack, they would only stay long enough to make a nuisance of themselves before disappearing. If they showed up and either Jack or I were there, they made more of an attempt to actually harm us, but still left pretty quickly. However, if Jack and I were both there they wouldn't stop attacking us, and usually only us regardless of if any of the other guardians were there, until we swapped powers. Almost as soon as we did that, they fled. And every time this happened, if they did stay to fight, we seemed to be taking longer to defeat them each time. It didn't feel like the pixies were getting stronger though…it felt like we were getting weaker somehow.

I was lying in bed back in the tree hideout a few weeks after the warren had been attacked. I couldn't sleep; my brain felt too full of gunk. The pixies had been trying to mess up everything recently. Easter had came and went, and luckily we managed to help Bunny pull it off pretty much without a hitch, but that didn't mean the pixies hadn't tried to screw it up.

I was exhausted from running around for what felt like 24/7 for the past few weeks, but my brain was refusing to shut down. I sighed and stood up, shaking my wings out. I walked through to the main room, stretching. I heard a fluttering sound and at first I thought it was one of the pixies come to make trouble, but when I turned the corner I saw that it was Cheddar pecking at some dried fruit I'd given the birds for their dinner that night.

When he heard my footsteps he quickly whipped around to see who I was. Ever since Jacobi and the pixies had invaded our home all the robins had been on high alert and had been very jumpy, especially the younger ones. Cheddar realised it was me and relaxed before flying over to me. I held out my hand and he landed on it.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked him, and he shook his head. "Me neither," I sighed.

I looked over at the tunnel that led up to the forest above us. There was a single beam of moonlight shining down from it. Maybe a fly about in the fresh air would clear my mind.

"I'm gonna go fly outside for a bit," I told Cheddar. "If anyone asks tell them I'll be back in a bit, yeah?"

Cheddar nodded.

"If I'm not back in and hour then have Rudi go find Jack, okay?"

He nodded again. I smiled and pecked a small kiss on his head. He chirped happily before flying back off to his dried fruit. I positioned myself under the tunnel and, waving to Cheddar, shot myself up the tunnel towards the source of the beam of moonlight. After aiming myself out of the hole in the tree and slaloming through the trees, I burst into the clean, crisp spring night air. I cracked my shoulders and grinned before starting to wiz around going in no particular direction.

Once I felt like I had gotten rid of all my excess energy (which admittedly took a while) I plopped myself down on a branch near the top of a tree, breathing heavily. With my legs dangling over the edge, I leaned my back against the trunk and stared up at the full moon.

The Man in the Moon had never spoken to me since the day he told me my name. Sometimes I wanted to scream at him to talk back to me. Sometimes I was fine with just having a one-way conversation with him. Today was one of those times.

"I seriously don't know what goes through your mind sometimes," I told him. "You could have let us know about the whole Destined Spirits thing. Or at least let North know. You seem to talk to him more than any of the rest of us."

I looked down to the forest floor. "You really confuse me sometimes," I sighed. "Why can't you just explain why you're doing stuff sometimes? Why can't you make it easier for the rest of us?"

Of course he remained silent. I groaned and rested my head back against the trunk of the tree. A golden sparkle caught my eye and I turned to look. I smiled when I realised what it was before taking off towards the stream of golden sand headed towards the village.

I slowly flew over it, dipping my hand in. Some small sprays of sand flew out and turned into butterflies which flitted around my head. I laughed, and just as I did Sandy flew into view on his little plane made of sand. He waved to me before flying over.

"Hey Sandy!" I called.

* * *

After Sandy had checked that all the dreams were heading in the right direction, we both landed on the forest floor. I had something I wanted to ask him that I'd been wondering recently.

"Sandy? I was wondering…do you remember your life before you were a spirit?"

He looked up at me, surprised, a question mark hovering over his head.

I shrugged. "I'd just been wondering recently, that's all."

He looked thoughtful for a moment before forming a model of a small child out of sand. He looked about eight or nine, but quite short for his age. Due to the colour of the sand I couldn't tell what colour his hair and eyes were though.

"Was that you?" I asked, and he nodded. I frowned. "What…you know…what happened?"

He frowned as well, as if he was trying to figure out a way of showing me. A light bulb turned on over his head (literally) before he pretended to fall asleep and created a thought bubble over his head with sand before opening his eyes to check I got the message.

I nodded. "You make me fall asleep and you show me what happened in a dream?" I clarified, and he nodded.

I immediately sat down on the ground before curling over on my side. I nodded to Sandy before closing my eyes. I felt something softly drop over my eyes before I instantly fell asleep.

* * *

_A young boy was sitting in a very clean and almost empty room. The only objects there were a small single bed, a chest of drawers and the chair next to the bed that the child was sitting on. Another young boy was lying in the bed playing snap with the other child._

_The child in the bed was clearly sickly. He had very pale skin and quite messy short brown hair. His bright green eyes looked full of life though._

_The other child was very quiet. Whereas when the boy in bed won a game he would shout 'Snap!' When the other boy won he just took the cards without saying a word. He had sandy coloured hair and bright blue eyes._

_After a few minutes of playing their game in relative silence, the boy in the bed piped up._

"_You know what my biggest dream is Sandy?" he asked the other boy._

_The quiet boy, Sandy, looked up at his friend but didn't say anything. He just had a quizzical look on his face._

_He sickly boy looked out the window. "I want to go catch butterflies in the forest one last time. Like dad and I used to do before my legs stopped working."_

_Sandy followed his gaze out the window before turning back to his friend with a determined look on his face. He laid a hand over his before nodding once at him. The other boy seemed to understand and his face lit up._

"_Thank you Sandy!" he cried before throwing his arms round his friend's neck._

_,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,_

_Sandy was now in the middle of the forest next to his village. He had a small net in one hand and a glass jar in the other. He had the same determined look on his face that he'd had back at his friend's house. Suddenly, a small white butterfly caught his eye and he ran after it, catching it easily in his net. He gently eased it into the jar before screwing the lid back on._

_He caught a few more white butterflies before he came across a very colourful one. This one seemed to be causing him a few more problems; it looked like he was finding it harder to catch than the others. The butterfly came to a tree before flying straight up to the top of it. Sandy clenched his fists before holding the net between his teeth and the jar under one arm. He slowly began to climb the tree._

_He reached the top of the tree and spotted the butterfly resting on a leaf. He rested the jar on a branch and brought the net back behind his head getting ready to swing._

_The butterfly flew away._

_He swung too hard._

_He lost his balance._

_The jar fell and smashed on the ground._

* * *

My eyes flew open. Sandy was standing next to me with a sheepish look on his face. I sat up slowly, looking down, trying to get my head around what I'd just seen.

"So…you died trying to fulfil your friend's dream?" I clarified, and he nodded.

"What was wrong with your friend?" I asked. "Was he paralysed or something?"

Sandy nodded again and then gestured from his waist to his feet.

"Paralysed from the waist down…" I murmured, before looking back up at Sandy. "You were a really good friend to him Sandy."

He blushed modestly, before his face changed to look concerned.

"I'm fine," I reassured him.

He shook his head and created a pixie above his head in sand.

"Oh…that…" I sighed. "We're managing okay. Jack and I just feel…we feel like we're getting weaker. It's really weird."

He really did look concerned now. I smiled to reassure him.

"I'm sure we just need some rest. Now that Easter's over hopefully the pixies'll settle down a bit," I said.

He nodded slowly but he didn't look convinced. I stood up, stretching.

"I'd better go," I told him. "I need to get back to the robins before they start wondering where I've gone."

Sandy nodded understandingly and we both said goodnight before he headed back to the village and I flew back to the tree.


	12. Chapter 11 - The Truth

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to Falcrow-42.**

**I apologise for this being horrifically late. Turns out trying to write and watch NCIS: LA at the same time doesn't work. Neither does Skyping and writing at the same time apparently. And I thought we girls were meant to be good at multitasking… **

**The start of this chapter sucks. Like, royally sucks. But further in we find out stuff! Important stuff! Important stuff that some people have been wondering about for a while, so I hope you're not disappointed! Please read and review!**

**DISCALIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 11 – The Truth**

"Nibbles! Cheddar! Give the poor elf his hat back!"

The two cheeky robins chirped before flying high up into the rafters of North's workshop. I rolled my eyes and chuckled at the elf jumping about angrily next to me, trying desperately to reach his hat to no avail. Dolly felt sorry for him and so flew down from her perch up in the rafters along with her friend Spark to pick him up and lift him up the chase the two young scamps. Spark was one of the fastest of all the robins, and one of the strongest, so along with Dolly they didn't find it hard to lift the teeny creature up. The elf however seemed pretty shocked at his sudden gain in height and started to squirm about, panicking. Dolly and Spark couldn't hold him and he dropped.

The poor elves are cursed with the highest, squeakiest voices of any creature I've ever come across, and this one was no exception. The noise he was emitting from his mouth as he fell sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I had to cover my ears but luckily Sandy, who had been watching and laughing at this escapade next to me, created a pillow of sand which the elf bounced off and landed standing upright on the floor. He blinked a few times, looking pretty disorientated, before realising he still didn't have his hat and recommencing his unsuccessful jumping to attempt to reach it.

I sighed, pitying the little thing so I flew up to the rafters myself to where Nibbles and Cheddar were sitting tossing the hat back and forth between them. When they saw me they immediately stopped, Nibbled attempting to hide the hat behind his back. I put one hand on my hip and held my other one out to them.

"Hat. Now."

Nibbles pouted (Yes, it is possible for robins to pout. And to give you puppy-dog eyes. Believe me, the chicks do it all the time, and it always gets me. I'm such a sap…) but he still flew up to me and dropped the tiny hat into my hand. I shook my head at them, but I was still grinning slightly. They took that to mean I wasn't too mad at them and quickly took off before I could scold them. I rolled my eyes before flying down and dropping the hat back on the elf's head. He grabbed it quickly and pulled it right over his head and face, presumably so nobody could steal it off him again, and ran away towards North's office, bumping into the walls as he went, not being able to see where he was going with the hat over his eyes.

Sandy and I both chuckled as he went, albeit Sandy was laughing silently. Ever since out encounter in the woods Sandy and I had grown closer, and we were now really good friends. I was glad. Out of all the guardians Sandy was the one I'd felt least close to, so the fact that he trusted me enough to tell me what happened to him, something he hadn't even told Jack, made me feel very grateful.

Suddenly I felt something behind me, and there was a cold breath on my neck.

"Guess who?"

Sandy whirled round, his hands already clenched into fists. I however didn't bother moving.

"Nice try Jack. You've gotta work on Jacobi's voice though. It's more gravely than that."

I heard him sigh as I turned round to face him. "At least Sandy fell for it!"

Sandy was now glaring at Jack, and Jack chuckled at his angry face, still hovering a few inches off the floor.

"So where's North and the others?" he asked, landing on the floor.

I nodded to my left in the direction the elf had just run. "In North's office talking about something Christmas-related. Sandy escaped cause he was bored, and I had to elf-sit."

I looked down at Sandy. "Actually, you'd better get back. North's gonna get annoyed if you're out of the meeting for too long."

Sandy rolled his eyes and huffed before slowly floating back to North's office. Once he was out of sight Jack took my hand in his and squeezed it gently.

"So how come you aren't in that meeting thing?" he asked.

I shrugged. "North said someone had to keep an eye on things out here. I volunteered first, much to Sandy's despair. They told me to say you didn't need to go in if you didn't want to. North said he'd fill us both in later. Bunny also said something about us getting alone time together. I was about to kick him."

Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. "I swear I'm going to kill him."

I just laughed and squeezed his hand back. "Don't worry about Bunny. He's harmless really."

Jack and I had been able to spend more time together over the past few days, and spend time with the other guardians, which had been really nice. The pixies seemed to have laid off for a while, and we were all very happy about that. North and the others said that they must have had enough of fighting us. Jack and I seemed to be the most suspicious about it; neither of us was convinced that the pixies were finished with us just yet. The robins still didn't want to be left alone in the hideout while I was at North's workshop, or anywhere else for that matter, so North had actually built some small boxes for them to sleep in in the rafters, and they loved them. Some of the younger robins had started to just stay there all the time, and they'd even started to help the yetis out with making the toys.

Jack sighed as he stared up at the globe with the millions of lights twinkling all over it, each light representing a believer.

"You know," he mused, "only a few years ago nobody believed in me. If I'd came here and seen all these lights they wouldn't have made a difference to me. But now I know that at least some of those kids believe in me, I need to protect them. And I hate that the pixies are threatening them." His grip tightened on his staff. "They're just kids! Kids like Jamie and Sophie…kids who are relying on us to keep them safe! And then stupid idiots like Pitch Black or Jacobi come in and…"

I laid a hand on Jack's shoulder and he looked over at me, his anger evident on his face.

"Jack, I know that it must hurt knowing that those kids could be in danger. But we need to stay strong for them. You said it yourself: they're relying on us. So we can't lose our heads. We need to stay strong for them."

Jack let out a breath I didn't realise he was holding, and he seemed to calm down. "You're right," he agreed, smiling gently. "Sorry. I didn't mean to dump all that on you."

I shook my head and smiled back. "Don't apologise. You need to let it out sometimes. We all do."

Jack took my hand in his again and started to lean in towards me.

"D'aw. You two make a cute couple."

We jumped apart quickly and both of us looked about trying to see where the voice came from. We already knew who it was.

"Jacobi! Show yourself!" I yelled.

The manic chuckling started again, and Jacobi appeared in a black cloud on the platform next to us. The cloud turned into a flurry of pixies who flew up into the rafters and towards North's office.

We were alone in this fight. The others couldn't help us.

Jacobi was now slowly circling us, his grey cloak swishing around his body, his silver hair tied back away from his face in a lose ponytail. Jack and I were standing back-to-back in the centre of the platform, both of us with our grips tight on our staffs.

"I hope you both realise that nobody's going to be able to help you," he stated the obvious. "This is between you two and me." He nodded up at the rafters. "I've told the pixies to keep your robins out of it. They too will let us fight this out between ourselves."

"What have you got against us?" Jack growled. "This can't be about us trapping the pixies anymore; it's gone beyond that now."

Jacobi grinned, and I noticed that his teeth were slightly pointed, like fangs. This guy got creepier every time we saw him.

"You're right. This is no longer about the icicle," he agreed. "Now that I know who you two really are I have something much more interesting planned for you two."

He lunged at us and we both pushed off from the ground in opposite directions. Jacobi chose to follow me, launching himself into the air. I sped around the giant globe quickly, and Jack did the same on the other side. Without saying a word to each other we turned to face Jacobi at the same time and blasted him: Jack with a snow flurry and me with a huge pollen cloud.

Jacobi stopped for a moment to get his bearings, and Jack and I took that as an opportunity to attack again. Jack waved his staff above his head and icicles started to form on the ceiling. He flew up so he could aim them down at Jacobi and I kept up the pollen cloud so Jacobi couldn't see what Jack was doing. The pixie king was flailing about now, and somehow he manages to grab hold of my arm. I tried to struggle out of his grasp but he pulled me into the pollen cloud with him. Confused, I dropped my staff and heard it hitting the platform below us. I tried to call out to Jack to go a grab it, by my own powers turned against me as I breathed in the pollen I'd just created. I started to cough and sneeze really badly. My eyes stung like crazy. How's that for irony: looks like the spring spirit has hay fever.

Jacobi started to laugh again. Apparently the pollen didn't affect him. Damn it. He still had a tight grip on my arm and he began to twist it. I cried out in pain as his claw-like nails dug into my skin. Without my staff I was powerless to blow the pollen cloud away and with my eyes closed to block out the pollen I couldn't see anything. I could still feel Jacobi's grip on my arm so I kicked out in the general direction. I heard a grunt. Got him.

I kicked out a few more times and eventually Jacobi let go of my arm. If I'd been smart I'd have taken that opportunity to fly out of the pollen cloud and go get my staff back. But apparently I'm not smart as I just continued to lash out at him, punching and kicking like Toothianna had taught me to.

Suddenly the pollen cloud blew away. I looked down to see Jack standing on the platform with brown hair and red hoodie and my staff in his hand pointed towards us. He flashed me a grin before flying up towards us, throwing his staff at me as he approached. I caught it easily and I immediately began to change. A few moments later my skin was pale, my dress and hair white, my wings sparkling.

Jacobi grinned.

Jack and I both charged towards him. Jacobi dropped quickly so he was hovering just below us. I glanced up and saw that Jack hadn't used the icicles he'd made earlier, so I flew up to the ceiling. When I got up there I locked eyes with Jack and he nodded. I raised his staff above my head, ready to aim the icicles down. Jack flew in front of Jacobi. He took the bait and chased him round the globe until he stopped beneath me. Before Jacobi could look up I aimed the staff downwards and the icicles followed it, battering the pixie king before he knew what was going on. Jack quickly tackled him and held him against the wall of the workshop.

"Anna!"

I flew down towards them and quickly ran Jack's staff over Jacobi's wrists, ankles and round his stomach. A trail of ice followed it and locked Jacobi against the wall. He struggled but he couldn't move.

"What are you even doing here?" Jack growled.

Jacobi ignored him and looked right at me. By this point I was breathing hard and my head was starting to hurt a little. This was weird…I hadn't even doing anything that should make me feel like this. We'd just flown around a little and the fight hadn't been that long.

"You can feel it, can't you Anna?" Jacobi asked, speaking softly but not sympathetically. "You can feel the burden it puts on you."

My head was now pounding. I groaned slightly and Jack immediately looked round at me.

"Anna? What is it? What's wrong?"

"I…I don't know…" I managed to get out, my head now in my hands.

Suddenly, my wings ceased up. I just had enough time to gape at Jack before I dropped out of the air.

"ANNA!" Jack cried.

I screamed as I hurtled towards the ground. We had been at least ten stories up, and the ground was getting ever closer. I closed my eyes and curled up into a tight ball, my head still throbbing.

Unexpectedly, I stopped falling. I sluggishly opened my eyes and saw Jack, his face full of worry. He must have flown down and caught me.

"Anna? You okay?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

I nodded slowly. "Y…Yeah. I think I'm alright."

He started to fly back up to the platform. "What happened? You just dropped all of a sudden."

I frowned. "I don't know what happened. My wings just…ceased up. They just stopped working out of nowhere."

Jack put me down gently on the platform next to the railings at the edge. My legs were still shaky so I had to use the railing to keep myself standing. Jack kept one arm around my waist to steady me as he glared up at Jacobi who was still attached to the wall.

"What did you do to her?" he yelled.

Jacobi started to laugh, shaking his head. Just then North and the others ran over from North's office. They must have managed to get away from the pixies.

"We heard a scream," North panted. He wasn't the most athletic of the guardians. "What happened?"

Jack was still glaring at Jacobi and was shaking slightly from rage, so he wasn't really in any position to answer. I looked over at the four of them. They all looked so worried. I was touched. I'd only known Sandy and North for a few weeks, and I hadn't known Bunny and Tooth all that well before that, but they'd all accepted me as a friend and as a guardian in a very short amount of time. I didn't want to worry them; they were the only friends I ever remember having, apart from the robins.

Before I could answer them, Jack was yelling at Jacobi again.

"Answer me you stupid oversized pixie!" he bawled. "What did you do to Anna?"

Jacobi was still chuckling, and the noise sent a shiver down my spine.

"You stupid child," he spat. "Do you honestly think _I_ did that to Annabelle?"

"Don't act all innocent," Jack snarled. "We know you're out to get us. We just don't know why."

The king of the pixies sighed. "You honestly think I'm just going to tell you? Didn't Anna tell you she tried that when she came to see me last time?"

North and the others looked over at me, confused. I grimaced. Great, I'd now have to explain that…

Jacobi rolled his eyes at me and shook his head pityingly. "Stupid girl…"

That was the last straw for Jack. "Mund, look after Anna," he muttered before shooting up towards Jacobi.

My knees started to buckle but Bunny got over just in time and laid an arm round my shoulders. I supported myself on him and said a quick "Thank you" before turning my attention back to Jack and Jacobi.

Jack had practically smashed himself into Jacobi, smashing the ice that held him to the wall. He pinned him against himself instead, his arm pressing against his neck.

"Do you seriously think you have the upper hand here?" Jack snarled. "We could end you right here and now. We did it to Pitch and we'll do it to you."

"Then why haven't you?" Jacobi smirked, before closing his eyes. A black cloud of smoke enveloped him and he disappeared before reappearing sitting on top of the globe. He snapped his fingers and a group of pixies appeared out of nowhere and flew at Jack, holding him back against the wall. I tried to get away from Bunny to go help him but Bunny held me back, knowing I couldn't do much while my wings weren't working and Jack's staff was somewhere on the ground floor of the workshop.

Jacobi was looking right at me again, locking eyes with me. He smiled gently.

"You want to know the end of the story about the Destined Spirits?" he asked quietly, leaning forward. "Well here it is. After Pitch and I observed them for many many years we noticed that every time the girl and boy swapped powers they became a little weaker. We used this to our advantage. They thought we were getting stronger when in reality they were the ones becoming frailer. Eventually during a fight neither of them could use their powers anymore."

He stood up, still staring right at me. "They became mortal. They lost their powers as spirits. And we killed them. That was their fate, and now yours."

Jacobi snapped his fingers again and a huge cloud of pixies emerged from the rafters where they had been distracting the robins. They flew around him and he disappeared. The pixies flew towards a skylight in the ceiling and smashed through it.

I heard a quiet whimpering noise. It took me a few moments to realise that it was coming from me. Bunny squeezed my shoulders, not knowing what to say. North, Sandy and Tooth were standing with their mouths open in shock.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Jack standing there. He tried to smile but he couldn't. I let go of Bunny to hug Jack and my knees buckled again. I fell to my knees and Jack fell with me. He just held me and stoked my hair as I cried into his shoulder. My wings drooped pathetically behind me.

Jacobi had been killing us and we hadn't even realised it. That had been his plan all along.


	13. Chapter 12 - Promise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: You know that way when at least three people have asked you to get the next chapter of this up ASAP and then your teachers spring three tests on you in one week, two of which if you don't pass then you can't sit the final exam at the end of the year? Yeah, that really sucks.**

**So needless to say I've been studying for said tests which has left not a lot of time to write this. Also, I'm worried this chapter might be a bit of a disappointment as there isn't any action in this one. However the next few chapters after this one are going to have more action going on so I hope you'll bear with this one!**

**This chapter is dedicated to Avalongirl55, T. R. Blessing, mellibear725, mElLiBeArS, WannaDieMiku and SickHappiness.**

**Please read and review! And thank you to everyone for your support with this story; you have no idea how much it means to me!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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**Chapter 12 – "Promise" **

Light. Bright light. It pierced my eyes and pain shot through my head. I squeezed my eyes shut again and groaned, feeling something tucked around me and pulling it over my head.

As my head started to clear I realised I was in my bed back in the tree hideout. I could hear a faint chirping which meant that at least some of the robins had returned from North's workshop. The last thing I remembered was crying on Jack's shoulder as he held me. After that…nothing. My memory was blank. I must have passed out.

Everything that had happened before that slowly started to come back to me: chasing Nibbles and Cheddar, Jacobi breaking in, the fight, my wings failing, Jacobi's revelation…

A few silent tears ran down my cheeks, my eyes still squeezed shut. I still couldn't believe it… The thought of me and Jack dying… I shook my head. It couldn't happen. It just couldn't.

I slowly peeled my blanket off my head, blinking a few times to try and clear my vision. I turned my head and saw a vase full of daffodils - my favourite flowers - all iced up, frosty and sparkling. I smiled. Jack.

I turned to the other side and saw Jack sitting in a wicker chair next to my bed. He had his arms folded across his chest and he was fast asleep, his mouth slightly open. He was snoring lightly. I smiled again. He must have brought me back from North's workshop when I passed out.

I sat up slowly, my head still thumping. Jack was back to normal and, looking down at my hands and dress, so was I. Both of our staffs were propped up against the wall next to Jack, which meant someone, probably Jack or Tooth, had found it on the bottom floor of the workshop. I looked behind me and saw my wings still drooping behind me, a lot less sparkly than they usually were. I tried to stretch them out and winced. They were still really stiff but I managed to straighten them. I relaxed them, cracked my shoulders and stretched them out again. It was a little easier. Guess I'd just have to strengthen them back up again. I probably wouldn't be able to fly for a while though. Great…

I heard a yawn next to me and turned to see Jack opening his eyes and stretching.

"Hey," I smiled.

He smiled back. "Hey. You're up. Thank goodness."

He walked over to my bed and sat down next to me. He automatically took hold of my hands and squeezed them reassuringly. It just felt natural for him to do that now. It was nice.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Three days," he sighed, his face falling. "I guess what Jacobi said about transforming taking it out of you was right…"

I nudged him with my elbow. "New rule: no mentioning that _thing_ in my house anymore, alright?"

He chuckled and nodded. "Deal."

Just then Rudi, Dolly, Spark, Nibbles, Cheddar and a dozen of the other robins flew in and chirped happily when they saw I was awake. They pushed themselves into my face causing me and Jack to lose each other's hands. I laughed as their wings tickled me and Jack laughed too. I think part of him was just glad I was okay. The last time he saw me conscious I had been crying my eyes out. My laughter was probably a relief to him.

The birds stayed for a while, all of them wanting to make sure I really was okay, the little darlings. After they left, Jack was still smiling.

"They've been so worried about you," he told me. "When I brought you in they tried to take you off me and carry you in here themselves. Rudi managed to convince the others that I'd probably find it easier. He's barely left your side for the past three days."

I looked up at the door to my room that they'd just flown out of and smiled. They were all so sweet. I loved them all so much. I turned back to Jack. He was still looking at me and, despite his smile, he still looked worried.

"So it _was_ you that brought me back here," I commented, and he nodded.

"You passed out after Jaco…you know who disappeared. Tooth freaked out and thought you had…you know…" He coughed awkwardly before continuing. "Anyway, after we'd calmed her down Bunny offered to open a tunnel back to here. I figured it would be easier to fly through a tunnel carrying you rather than going through the snow storm and flying all the way back here, so Bunny created a tunnel and I flew you back here. North and the others came to visit yesterday. They're all really worried about you."

I tried to get out of bed. "I should go see them. Make sure they know I'm okay."

Jack shook his head and gently pushed me back into bed. "You're not going anywhere. You're still weak Anna. North said I was to make sure you stayed here until you're fully recovered and I'm gonna make sure you do."

I looked him in the eye. "Jack, what happens if I don't fully recover? You heard what that stupid giant pixie said. If I'm turning mortal then there might be no way back. What if I die Jack? What if _we _die? Then what?"

By this point I was crying again. I wanted to slap myself in the face. I hated looking weak and frail, especially in front of Jack. Before I knew it he was holding me again, gently stroking my hair just like he had done back in North's workshop. I sniffed a few times and dried my eyes, embarrassed that I'd let my emotions get the best of me again.

"Sorry," I sniffed.

Jack shook his head. "Don't apologise. I don't care if you cry Anna. I don't blame you. I've been crying while you were blacked out."

I sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have been there to comfort you like you've been to me."

Jack exhaled. "Quit saying you're sorry! Anna, look at me."

I had looked down at my hands on my lap, angry at myself that I felt like I was relying on him. Jack gently took hold of my chin and tilted my head up so I was looking at him. He was smiling, but he still looked worried.

"Anna, please stop apologising. This isn't your fault. It's none of our faults. None of us saw this coming, okay? Please stop putting all the blame on yourself."

I took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "You're right. Sorry."

Jack sighed and I realised I'd apologised again. I laughed quietly. Jack smiled and started laughing too. We didn't stop for a good few minutes. I guess we both needed something to smile about.

Once we'd stopped laughing I got back to the important stuff. "So I take it you spoke to North and the others when they were here?"

Jack nodded, his hand dropping from my face to hold my hands again. "He mentioned that he thought he'd figured out why the pixies were targeting us."

I frowned. "We already know that though, right? It was so the pixie prat could weaken us."

Jack snorted at the new nickname. "Yeah, but he guessed that the reason he was trying to do that was to avenge Pitch. He and Pitch were friends, or they were as close to friends as they had at least. He probably figured that if he wanted to defeat us on behalf of Pitch the best way would be to take as many of us out altogether in the simplest way possible. You, and me to a lesser extent, were being targeted even before any of us knew we could swap powers. Jacobi most likely thought you'd be the easiest one to take out since you were the newest guardian."

I smirked. "I like to think that I was at least a bit of a challenge."

Jack chuckled. "I'm sure he was pretty surprised. When he saw what we could do it must have just helped his idea along."

I absentmindedly played with his hands, looking down at them. "So what're we gonna do?" I asked, knowing we had to face facts sooner or later.

Jack sighed and shook his head, also looking down at our hands. "I honestly don't know," he admitted, before looking back up at me. "But I do know one thing. We have to rely on our own powers from now on. We can't risk swapping anymore."

I sighed and broke my hands away from his, locking my fingers together and pushing them against the back of my neck. "Jack, I'm not sure…I mean we're obviously stronger when we do that."

Jack looked shocked. "Anna, there's no way we can do it anymore. You saw what happened last time."

"Yeah, but if we don't do it unless we have to, and we only do it for short bursts of time then we should be okay, right?" I argued. "You don't have to do it or anything. I can just borrow yours for a little while if we need an extra power boost."

Jack shook his head. "I can't believe you're saying that…" he muttered. "A few minutes ago you were crying your eyes out about this. And you should know that I'd never let you fight by yourself. Not after what happened in that cave."

"Yeah, I know, but…" I started again, looking down. My hands had slid from my neck to behind my back.

Jack held my face in his hands and pulled me up to look at him. "No buts. Anna, you've got to promise me that we won't swap powers again. Promise me."

I sighed, defeated. "Okay."

Jack wasn't satisfied. "Say it."

"I promise."

My hands were still behind my back.

He smiled. "Thank you," he murmured quietly before leaning in to kiss me.

It was a short and gentle kiss, but it was heartfelt. I closed my eyes, mostly so Jack couldn't see the guilt in them.

My hands were still behind my back.

My fingers were still crossed.

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**AN: Translation about the last bit: she crossed her fingers when she promised Jack she wouldn't swap powers again. OOOOOOOO! **

**I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the others but it was really just to link the last chapter to the next one. I know that the last chapter ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and it worries me that some people were on edge for this one to be up, because the next few chapters are all going to end on cliffhangers too, and much bigger ones than chapter 11 did. I promise I am going to try and get the cliffhanger chapters up ASAP so that I'm not leaving you all on edge for too long.**

**ANYWAY. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review with any comments or constructive criticisms! Your reviews are always appreciated and I always reply to them and answer any questions! Thanks again for reading! LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS!**


	14. Chapter 13 - The Attack

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: So as I warned at the end of the last chapter, this one does end on a RATHER LARGE cliffhanger. Please don't eat me! I'm sorry to make you all suffer :-P I hope you'll all appreciate it if you look back on the last few chapters after they're done; I really think the story works better the way I've stretched it out.**

**Anyhow, this chapter is dedicated to BlueNekoChan and The Dark Lady 55. Hope you all enjoy! Please review! Internet cookies for anyone who does! As I saw in the AN of a story I'm currently reading, reviews are like chocolate!**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

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**Chapter 13 – The Attack**

Jack placed a steaming mug of hot chocolate down in front of me, three large pink marshmallows floating in the creamy brown liquid. I smiled my thanks before blowing on the drink to cool it down and taking a sip. Jack sat down opposite me with his own glass of orange juice (He wasn't too fond of warm drinks) and smiled as he drank it.

It had been almost a week since I'd woken up after passing out and Jack hadn't left my side since. He was being really sweet, not only looking after me but also looking after the robins, going out to get them food and helping the mothers look after their eggs; they were due for hatching any day now.

Slowly but surely I was recovering. My wings were now working, although I did get tired more easily while flying than I used to. Jack refused to let go of my hand the first few times I tried to fly, but to be completely honest I didn't complain. I loved the feeling that someone cared about me that much. It made me feel even worse about lying to him though.

I sighed into my hot chocolate, causing tiny ripples to flow across its surface. Jack noticed.

"You okay?" he asked, his eyes immediately full of concern.

I smiled gently and put my mug down on the table. "I'm fine Jack. I was just thinking."

He raised an eyebrow. "Thinking? Don't hurt yourself."

I rolled my eyes and glared at him, but I couldn't help but smile. Jack saw that he had succeeded in cheering me up, even though he didn't know why I was looking upset in the first place, and smiled back. There was a reason he was the Guardian of Fun; he never failed to make me smile or laugh.

A small group of robins came flying in from the forest chirping at 100 miles an hour. Cheddar landed on the brim on my mug and was fluttering his wings so furiously he fell into the hot chocolate. Luckily my drink was lukewarm by now and I managed to fish him out before he got hurt.

"Cheddar, calm down and speak slowly," I told him. "I can't understand a word you're saying if you're drowning in my drink."

Cheddar took a few deep breaths before repeating his message more slowly. My eyes widened. I stood up.

"Rudi!" I called.

Rudi came flying up from the nursery. He'd been looking after Ivy, his wife, and their two new eggs. And yes, I did just say wife. Rudi and Ivy got married five years ago. We had a wedding for them and everything with Jack acting as the registrar. Tooth helped me make a tiny little veil for Ivy and a teeny bow tie for Rudi. It was so sweet; they really loved each other. Rudi was so excited about being a dad again; this was the third year they had had chicks.

Rudi landed on my shoulder, his head tilted questioningly.

"We've got to go," I told him. "You're in charge till we get back, okay?"

Jack stood up. "Wait, we've got to go where exactly?"

I turned to him. "The robins saw the aurora. North's calling us."

* * *

"Anna, you tell me as soon as you feel tired, okay? North won't mind if we're a bit late. He'll understand."

I rolled my eyes. "Jack, I heard you the first fifty times. I swear, I'm fine."

Yet another lie. I wasn't feeling too fine. My wings felt stiff and flying this fast meant I was gulping lungfuls of air and still not feeling I was getting enough.

Nibbles and Cheddar flew down beside me, checking if I was okay. I smiled at them and they took that to mean I was doing alright before flying back up to join the large group flying above us.

Rudi had wanted to come but I wouldn't hear of it; he was going to be a dad again soon and he'd have chicks to look after. So instead, Rudi told some of the younger birds who wouldn't be fathering or mothering chicks of their own this year to go with us. Rudi was still really paranoid about what had happened with Jacobi. It was quite funny; I was meant to be the one who looked after him and yet _he _was the one afraid and worried for _me_.

The aurora was still flickering in the sky. The colours seemed to be getting brighter which meant we were getting closer. I was glad I'd get to see the other guardians again. They'd all come to visit me a few days ago which had been really sweet of them, but I hated them seeing me so weak. When they came I was out of my bed and was able to fly a bit, but they were all visibly worried about me. And as much as I appreciated their sympathy I didn't want it. Jack's was another story. I wasn't really sure why; it wasn't that I was happy he was worried about me, because I wasn't, but the way that he showed his concern was just so lovely. All the small things he did, helping with the robins, cleaning up the hideout, offering encouragement to me if I failed at flying and helping me to finally succeed. I loved it. And maybe…_maybe _I loved him…

I shook my head at my thoughts. What was I thinking? Now wasn't the time to be getting all lovey-dovey. We all had a serious problem on our hands and we needed to focus.

But I seriously wished I didn't have to. I wished me and Jack could just be together all the time without worrying if we were going to be jumped on by a gaggle of pixies at any given moment of the day. Thankfully they hadn't attacked the hideout while I'd been recovering, which was a relief, but that had made me worried that they might be attacking somewhere else and we couldn't help. I tried to ask Bunny about it when they came to visit but he didn't say anything. He just kind of smiled and told me not to worry about it and concentrate on feeling better. This of course made me worry. Stupid reverse psychology. _Unintended _reverse psychology; even worse.

We finally arrived at North's workshop. The robins flew in first, led by Nibbles. I smiled. He was going to be a great little leader one day. He'd probably end up taking over Rudi if he ever wanted to retire. Not that I saw that happening any time soon.

Jack and I landed on the roof. I was still breathing pretty heavily but was trying to hide it from Jack. Needless to say I didn't succeed.

"Anna! You alright?" he asked worriedly, placing a comforting hand on my back.

I nodded, even though I knew I wasn't convincing him. "Y…yeah. I…I'm…fine..."

Jack frowned. "Anna, come on. We can wait up here for a bit if you want."

I had enough energy left to lift my head to glare at him. "You…think…I'm…going to…feel…better…out…here…in the…freezing…cold?"

Jack grimaced. "Good point…sorry."

I rolled my eyes at him. Before I could jump down the passage to the platform below us however, Jack picked me up bridal style and carried me over to the hole in the roof. My eyes widened.

"What…are…you…doing?" I managed to squeal.

Jack tried, and failed, to hide a smile. "I'm not going to let you jump down there yourself. If your legs give out under you then you could hurt yourself."

I glared at him. This was nothing to do with that. This was just an excuse for him to embarrass me in front of the others. I know he cares a lot about me but he was still the Guardian of Fun regardless, and he liked teasing people, myself included.

"If you drop me, you die," I growled, managing to speak without gulping air in after every word.

He chuckled before planting a quick kiss on my forehead and jumping down the passage. The speed and the fact I wasn't controlling my own decent made me feel nauseous, so I pressed my head into his chest so I wouldn't throw up. I heard him chuckle again at the close contact and I had to hold myself back from smacking him.

I felt us landing on the platform and I lifted my head away from Jack's chest to look around. North, Tooth, Bunny and Sandy were all standing at the edge of the platform and had all turned to face us. Bunny and Tooth looked shocked. North did too but soon his face split into its usual jolly beaming grin. Sandy just smiled and waved.

Jack stood up and set me down on my feet. I held onto him for balance; he was right, my legs were a bit wobbly. I half expected him to say "I told you so" or something to that effect but he didn't. He just looked worried. Despite the fact three people and a giant rabbit were staring at us, I smiled, my cheeks flushing red, and I pecked him on the cheek to reassure him I was okay. Jack turned to me, his face shocked before he started grinning his head off. Tooth and Bunny's mouths dropped open while North and Sandy's smiles just got bigger.

Jack and I both nodded at each other before turning and walking over to the others, me managing to walk on my own. Tooth composed herself first and smiled. She looked genially happy, not jealous as I thought she might. Considering her obsession with Jack's teeth I thought maybe she also had developed feelings for him, but she seemed fine with what she'd just seen. I hope this didn't ruin our friendship; I really loved Tooth. She was probably the closest thing I had to a best friend other then Jack.

Bunny took a bit longer to pull himself together, but he still managed to, flashing a smile at me before raising an eyebrow at Jack, still grinning. He nudged North with his elbow.

"See? Told you I wasn't making things up about what I saw the other morning when they were staying here!" he chuckled.

Jack's face turned thunderous and he looked like he would have made a lunge for Bunny if I hadn't held him back. North and Bunny just laughed, but not unkindly. On the contrary, they seemed happy for us. Bunny had already known about me and Jack, or he'd had his suspicions at least, but he seemed glad everyone else also now did.

After they stopped laughing I brought everyone back down to earth with a bump.

"So, why'd you call us here?" I asked North.

"Well, to start, I wanted to make sure you had made full recovery," North smiled kindly. "Since you make it here I presume you are now okay."

Jack gave me a look but I ignored it. "Yes, I'm fine now, thank you."

"But then why did Jack carry you in?" Tooth asked, still sounding worried.

I rolled my eyes. "That was just Jack being Jack. He thought he'd embarrass me."

Jack smiled slightly. "What can I say? It's what I do!"

I punched his arm lightly, but I could see from the look in his eyes he was still worried about me. I smiled warmly to try and convince him that I was okay, even though I still felt a bit tired and sore.

"I also need to ask you something," North continued, his face and tone turning serious. "I need you to promise you will not swap powers with Jack again."

I sighed. "Jack's already told me that."

North wasn't satisfied. "I want you to promise in front of all of us."

Bunny, Tooth and Sandy all nodded in agreement. My heart sunk. Making a false promise to Jack was bad enough, but I really didn't want to make one to everyone else too. As such I just nodded.

"Okay."

"Okay what?" North frowned.

"Okay to what you said."

North shook his head. "No, no. We want to hear you say it."

I bit my lip. I thought maybe I could talk my way round it without actually promising anything, but it looked like I couldn't. I wished with everything I had that something would happen to distract everyone so I didn't have to lie.

Amazingly, my distraction came. Unfortunately, it was the worst possible distraction.

Through the newly-fixed skylight burst a black shadow moving at lightning speed. It shot down towards us, grabbed Tooth – who started screaming bloody murder - and sped back up out of the smashed skylight.

Jacobi had Tooth.

* * *

Jack and I were speeding through an increasingly heavy snowstorm chasing after the damn pixie king who had kidnapped one of our friends and fellow guardians. The adrenalin pumping through my veins had given me the boost I needed and I now felt back at 100%. I wasn't tired, my wings weren't stiff, I wasn't desperately gasping for air. I was just focused on getting Tooth back. North, Bunny and Sandy were getting the sleigh ready and were going to follow us soon. I was leaving a trail of my fairy dust behind me so they could follow us.

Flying over some jagged rocks we came across a wide, flat plain covered in snow and ice next to a sheer cliff-face. Jacobi was standing in the centre, his cloak pulled closely around him. Tooth was lying in front of him being held down by a group of pixies. She was struggling, but not as much as she would be at full strength. She was clearly weakening.

I growled under my breath, as did Jack. Jacobi either heard us or somehow felt our presences as he looked right up at us and grinned.

"Well Annabelle, I'm glad to see you're feeling better!" he called out.

I gritted my teeth before speeding down towards him, Jack following close behind me. I didn't even want to speak to him. I just wanted him gone, Tooth safe, and for Jack and me to leave here and carry on with our lives. I _hated _this stupid oversized pixie.

In this snowy, frozen up landscape my powers couldn't really do anything in their current weak state, so I flew down to Tooth and started trying to punch and kick the pixies away from her, but it seemed that for every pixie I got off of her two more appeared out of nowhere and continued to hold her down.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jack fighting the pixie king. I noticed that for the first time he was actually going on the offensive rather than just dodging Jack's attacks. I was worried as I watched Jack send a purple-blue ice blast at Jacobi while he retaliated by sending some kind of black smog cloud towards Jack. As it engulfed him it shrouded him from my view, but I heard him choking.

"JACK!" I screamed.

"G…go…"

I turned to look down at Tooth.

"Go…go save him…" she said weakly, smiling ever so slightly.

I squeezed her hand and nodded gratefully before taking off towards the black cloud. Just before I reached him I saw something fall out of the cloud. Jack's staff.

I swooped down to grab it without a second thought. I caught it before it reached the ground, flying back over next to Tooth and dropping my own staff down next to her.

"ANNA! NO!"

I turned to see Jack staring at me in horror. The cloud had now faded away and he could see me clearly.

"You promised!" he cried, his eyes wide.

I gave him a small smile as I felt the warm wind whip up around me.

"I crossed my fingers," I called back to him as I began to change. "It doesn't count."

I heard Jacobi's manic laughter as my transformation was completed. I glared at him as he flew down towards me. He snapped his fingers and the pixies flew off of Tooth. I bent down next to her as she sat up.

"Anna…" she gasped as she saw me. "What have you done?"

I squeezed her hand again. "Fly back to the workshop as fast as you can," I told her. "Follow the trail of fairy dust I left. Tell North and the others to get here as fast as they can."

She nodded and I helped her stand. She was still really shaky, and I wished I didn't have to ask her to fly all the way back to the workshop by herself, but I knew that asking Jack was pointless; he wouldn't leave me. Tooth hovered slightly off the ground and, shooting one last worried glance at me, she took off in the direction we'd come from.

I turned back to face Jacobi, gritting my teeth once again.

"You never wanted Tooth," I stated. "You just wanted to get me and Jack to swap."

Jacobi smirked. "Yes, and it was so easy," he drawled. "Honestly, I thought the guardians would be more of a challenge to take down than this."

I held back the urge to just scream at him like a child before summoning an army of icicles and launching them at the pixie king. He smirked and took off, his silver hair streaming out behind him, his black cloak now discarded on the ground revealing the same crisp white shirt he had worn when he had stormed my home, and a pain of tight black pants. He wore no shoes.

I chased after him, firing more and more ice attacks at him. I refused to look at Jack, knowing that if I saw the pain and confusion in his eyes it would be too much to bear. My attacks were getting weaker and weaker. The logical part of my brain was telling me that there was no way I could keep this up, but the rest of my body didn't listen and kept fighting anyway.

Jacobi turned and shot a lightning bolt towards me. I dodged out of the way of it, but it lit up the night sky enough for me to see Jack flying down towards my staff. I screamed at him to stop and when he didn't I swooped down, grabbed it and hurled it over the cliff.

"What the hell did you do that for!?" Jack shouted.

"I can't have you hurt yourself too!" I screamed back. "Only one of us has to do this; can't you see tha…"

I gasped as a shear pain struck my back. Jack screamed. Jacobi laughed.

I fell.

The sharp rock Jacobi had used to strike me was still embedded in my skin. I could feel my back becoming wet as blood started to spill, staining the pure white snow. I felt a slight tingling before I returned to normal, my transformation dissolving away.

Jack kneeled down next to me. His voice sounded muffled to me, but I could see by his face that he was distraught. Tears were in his eyes and his hands were covered in blood. My blood.

Why did he seem to be fading away? Jack looked and felt like he was getting further and further away from me even though he wasn't moving. What was going on?

"_They became mortal. They lost their powers as spirits. And we killed them. That was their fate, and now yours."_

Jacobi's words suddenly resonated in my head. I ordered my body to sit up, or at least to move, but it refused. The reality of what was happening to me made my heart feel even colder than my body was.

I was losing my powers. I was becoming mortal.

* * *

**AN: Aaaaaaaaand….There's your cliffhanger! Please don't hate me!**

**Also, please please **_**please **_**review! I know I said that in the author's note at the top but seriously, every time I get a review I'm so happy and I just want to hug whoever wrote it. **

**And if anyone spots any mistakes then please let me know. I wanted to get this up as soon as I could so three quarters of this was typed up quite late at night. Thank you!**

**Thanks again for reading! Love you all! xxx**


	15. Chapter 14 - Bloodshed

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: *Dodges sharp projectiles thrown after the cliffhanger from the last chapter***

**I'm really sorry to keep you guys in suspense! I know at least three people wanted to eat me after the last chapter, but it's up now so you can't hate me anymore! This chapter also features part of it from Jack's point of view, so please let me know if I do that part okay.**

**In other news, I got the DVD of Rise of the Guardians the other day and I got to watch it for the first time since the day I wrote the prologue to this story! I forgot how much I loved that film :-D **

**I hope you all enjoy this! Please review! **

**This chapter is dedicated to LITTLE RED FOXX, ViviBright16, Pearl27 and TheDragonSinger.**

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 14 - Bloodshed**

Coldness. All I could feel was coldness. The snow and ice had numbed me so much I couldn't feel the pain anymore. I moved my head a tiny bit and I could see that my blood was still spilling onto the snow.

Jack's face still looked shocked. His eyes were filled with tears, his hands covered with my blood. He brushed some hair out of my eyes, lifting me slightly off of the cold ground, murmuring, "It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay," over and over again, like he was trying to convince himself as well as me.

I wanted to sit up properly and hug him, to tell him I was fine and that everything was going to be alright. But I couldn't. Partly because I could sit up, or move at all, and partly because I wasn't fine and I didn't know that everything was going to be alright. I had gotten myself into this situation because I'd lied. I couldn't lie to him again, even if it was to try and make him feel better.

I strained to move my hand up to grasp his, which was now resting on my cheek. His was shaking slightly, but it stopped when I placed my hand over his.

"Jack…" I breathed, a faint trail of condensation leaving my mouth.

Fresh tears sprung to Jack's face. I slowly reached my hand out and traced my thumb over them to wipe them away.

"I'm sorry…" I murmured. "I'm so sorry…"

He shook his head. "Don't apologise," he muttered. "This isn't your fault."

I was too weak to argue, but I knew he was wrong.

I swallowed. "Tooth…" I began.

Jack stopped me with a nod. "I know. She's gone to get the others."

I nodded slightly. "Please…you have to beat him," I begged. "You have to win…"

My arm lost what little strength it had and fell from his face. My vision was starting to get blurry again. I felt Jack lay me down on the ground and take his hand off of my cheek before he reached down to pick up his staff which had fallen from my hand when Jacobi struck me. I was still conscious when he stood up and turned away from me.

Conscious, but just barely.

* * *

**I was going to kill him. That was the one and only thought that ran through my head on loop. I was going to kill him, and so help North and the others if they tried to stop me.**

**When Anna's hand reached out to brush my tears away, for a moment I felt that anger and hatred leave me. This wasn't natural for me. I'm the Guardian of Fun. I'm the happy one who doesn't take things seriously. I'm the one who finds a laugh and a joke in potentially life-threatening situations. But there was nothing fun about this. The one person I cared most about in the whole world was fading away right in front of me, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. I wanted to cry even more, but I couldn't. I had to stay strong, for Anna.**

**As her hand fell from my cheek I could tell she was becoming weaker. The rage came flooding back as I gently lay her down on the icy floor. It wasn't cold to me, but I could imagine how it must have felt to her. I hated leaving her there, but I had to do something about Jacobi. He wasn't going to get away with this.**

**I retrieved my staff from the ground and stood up. **

"**I'll be back soon," I murmured to Anna. "I promise."**

**I doubt she heard me.**

**I turned and walked up to where Jacobi was standing a little away from where we were. No doubt he heard our whole conversation. He had his arms crossed over his chest and a triumphant smirk on his face. My hand clenched around my staff.**

"**Who'd have thought she'd be so easy to be rid of?" he taunted. "Even if she was a new guardian, I expected more of a challenge to be honest."**

**He gazed over my shoulder. "And now look at her. Too weak even to fight. Now she has to have her **_**boyfriend**_** protect her," he sneered.**

**Suddenly he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. I whirled around to see him standing over Anna, blue sparks crackling in his hand.**

**I saw red. I sped towards him, faster than I've ever moved before, and forced him out of the way. One of his sparks hit my across the forehead but I ignored the pain. I stood beside Anna, my staff out in front of me.**

"**You do not touch her," I growled.**

**Jacobi started to laugh. "You stupid boy!" he cried. "You've actually fallen for her, haven't you?"**

**He disappeared again and I felt him reappear behind me, his back against mine.**

"**So what would you do if I did **_**this**_**?" he hissed.**

**Without even checking to see what "this" was, I spun around and kicked him away from her. He wasn't expecting such a quick response and he fell to his knees, spinning away from me across the ice.**

"**I said you don't touch her!" I screamed before launching myself at him, my staff crackling purple. **

**He stood up and dodged out of the way just before I collided with him, before he shot up into the air. I sped after him, firing one attack after another at him. Most of them connected, but if he was in pain he didn't show it.**

"**Jack!"**

**I'd know that voice anywhere. Bunnymund. I'd never been so glad to hear that rabbit's voice in my entire life.**

**The sleigh came into view out of the corner of my eye. Tooth was speeding ahead of it, guiding it towards us. North had one hand on the reins and the other was holding one of his swords. Bunnymund was crouched with his boomerang ready in his paw to throw. Sandy looked angrier than I'd ever seen him before. His sand was already whirling around his head, as if he hadn't selected his weapon of choice yet.**

**Tooth spotted Anna and sped down towards her. North started to follow her but pulled the reindeer back and stopped in shock when he saw the pool of blood and the girl lying in it. **

"**North, keep moving!" Bunny called, looking over his shoulder to see what he was staring at. He also stopped in shock when he spotted Anna, Tooth now kneeling next to her, cradling her head in her arms and crying. Sandy's face fell before becoming more menacing than ever. He created a large cloud of sand, jumped onto it and sped towards where Jacobi and I were still fighting. Bunny let out some kind of war cry and jumped out of the sleigh, racing after Sandy to reach us. North landed the sleigh and jumped out, running towards Jacobi with his swords pointed directly at him.**

**Jacobi smirked at the attack and flew up higher where only Sandy and I could reach him. We shot up as Mund threw some of his colourful egg-grenades up. They flew past us and exploded next to Jacobi, driving him down. Sandy and I forced him back down to the ground so Mund and North could help in the fight. **

**North started to slash at Jacobi with his swords. He attempted to dodge out of the way but he got pushed back towards North by Sandy's sand whips. He smirked again before blasting the suffocating smog out of his hands. It hit North first, causing him to fall to his knees and cough violently. Sandy saw what happened and flew up and out of the way. I dropped down next to North, holding my arm over my mouth and nose to stop myself from breathing in the smog, and dragged him out into clean air. He nodded his thanks before I sped towards Mund to help him on the offensive. **

**I sent flurries of purple icy sparks at Jacobi while Mund threw more of his egg-grenades. Jacobi summoned more of his smog and held it out in front of him like a shield. It seemed to harden to repel our attacks, but it was still swirling like a gas. **

**Suddenly a scream came from the direction where Anna was lying on the ground. I spun round to see the pixies attacking Tooth who had still been kneeling next to Anna. Before I could fly over Mund ran over and started throwing his boomerang to deflect them, blocking the pixies from both Anna and Tooth by standing of front of them. **

**North was now back on his feet and together with Sandy the three of us continued to fight Jacobi. He didn't look as confident as he once had; his 'divide and conquer' tactic wasn't going to plan. Sandy was hovering in front of Jacobi and North was behind him. Both of them were blocking him in a tight circle, Sandy with his sand whips and North with his swords. I flew up so I was hovering over him so he couldn't fly away. **

**Jacobi looked panicked. He started to summon the smog again but we were better prepared this time. North and I both put our arms over our mouths so we didn't breathe it in, and Sandy created a gas mask out of sand.**

**I lowered my arm as I realised the smog wasn't reaching up towards me. Jacobi was losing control of the smog and it was starting to fade away. He was either getting weaker or couldn't concentrate. **

**I looked up from Jacobi to see if Anna, Tooth and Mund were okay. Mund was crouched down next to Anna and Tooth was still looking down worringly at her. Mund looked up and caught my eye. I nodded down to Jacobi. He got the message and stood up, pulling out his boomerang.**

"**Everybody duck!" he called, before throwing it.**

**Both North and Sandy quickly got out of the way. I flew up higher just in case Mund missed. I shouldn't have worried about that though; he never misses.**

**The boomerang circled round our group and whacked Jacobi on the back of the head. He froze for a moment before falling forward and landing face-down on the icy ground. If this wasn't a life-or-death situation involving my best friends and the girl I cared about more than anyone else, it would have been quite funny. As it was I just glowered down at him.**

**Sandy created a cloud of sand underneath Jacobi and lifted him into the sleigh before both him and North climbed in.**

"**We take him back to workshop," North said. "You go to Annabelle."**

**I nodded, my face still solemn. I turned and ran towards where Mund and Tooth were still standing over the girl who I…who I **_**loved**_**. **

**I didn't turn to say goodbye to North and Sandy.**

* * *

I became aware of Tooth kneeling next to me crying. She gently lifted my head up off of the ground and softly stroked my hair. I appreciated her kindness – she really was an amazing friend.

Suddenly my head dropped back down and hit the ground. Tooth was flapping her hands about her face. I could see faintly that some of the pixies were attacking her. I commanded my body to stand up and fight them but it wouldn't obey. I couldn't move a single muscle.

Soon Bunny appeared and started to defend both me and Tooth, even though for some reason the pixies weren't attacking me. Once all the pixies were gone Bunny stooped down and brushed some hair out of my eyes just like Jack had done. It felt strange since he had paws instead of hands.

"Don't you worry Anna. We're gonna make sure you're alright," he murmured, his voice steady.

Before I could even try to respond Bunny looked away from me and stood up. I saw him nod before he pulled his boomerang out.

"Everybody duck!" he shouted before hurling it.

I heard a crack and then a soft thud. I prayed that he'd hit Jacobi and not anyone else, especially not Jack.

Bunny sighed in relief, as did Tooth. I took that to mean that it _had _been Jacobi he'd hit and not one of the others.

Suddenly Jack was there, kneeling next to me, grabbing hold of my hand and lifting my head onto his lap. He gently stroked my hair. I could see that his face was dirty and he had quite a large cut on his forehead. I wanted to tell him to clean it and make sure it was okay, but I couldn't speak. I could barely make any noise anymore. My eyelids felt heavy, and I only just managed to keep them open.

"What can we do?" I heard Tooth murmur.

Bunny sighed. "I don't know if there _is _anything we can do. If she falls unconscious she'll probably be mortal when she wakes up." He sighed again, heavier. "_If _she wakes up," he murmured quietly.

But I heard him.

_If _ I woke up? _If_? So _not_ waking up was a possibility? No. No no no. I couldn't die. I just couldn't. I couldn't leave the robins like this. I couldn't leave Jack like this…

I was too weak even to cry. But Jack wasn't. He started to weep. He hadn't turned round to face Bunny and Tooth when they'd started talking, but if I'd heard them then he definitely had.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm so so sorry."

I wanted to tell him to stop apologising. I wanted to tell him none of this was his fault. I wanted to tell him how sorry _I _was. I wanted to tell him…that I loved him.

But I couldn't.

Jack kept repeating how sorry he was. I could feel myself fading. Jack was becoming fainter, and I could only just make out the silhouettes of Bunny and Tooth now.

Jack suddenly leant down and kissed me hard. I could feel his tears running from his eyes onto my cheeks. I tried to push any energy I had left into my lips.

I managed to place the tiniest amount of pressure onto Jack's lips before the darkness took me.

* * *

**AN: …Please don't kill me… *hides in nuclear bunker* **


	16. Chapter 15 - Revival

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I'm still alive which means (amazingly) nobody killed me after how I left the last chapter! Hopefully you guys will like this one and not want to hurl things at me at the end! Please review, and please read the note at the end!**

**This chapter is dedicated to Lacie Caluanthes, VickyT36, truly-madly-deeply-forever, TsukiLovesSnape and Seras16. **

**DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 15 – Revival **

It's pitch black. I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. I can't feel anything.

I'm dead. I must be. It's the only explanation.

The last thing I remember is Jack crying. Bunny had said something about _if _I woke up, and Jack had started to cry. I must not have woken up.

I wonder what you're meant to do when you die. I can't see a light I'm supposed to move towards, there's no heavenly staircase, or burning prison cell depending on which direction I was meant to have gone in. No angels, no demons, no nothing. Just me. Alone. In the darkness.

Was this limbo? Maybe since I technically died before I became a spirit I had to wander limbo for the rest of time. Maybe you only get the chance to die peacefully once and if somehow you come back to life but then die again, you don't get to go onto whatever the afterlife is meant to be. Or maybe this _was _the afterlife. If it is then it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I wonder how Jack must be coping right now. How long had I been here? I couldn't tell; there was no way to follow the passage of time here, wherever 'here' was. Was he still on the top of that cliff holding my body and crying? Or had they already taken me back to the workshop? Maybe I'd even been buried already. How must the robins be doing? Rudi might not even know yet since he'd stayed back at the tree with Ivy. What about Nibbles, Cheddar and the others that had come with us? Most of them were so young…would they be able to deal with me dying? I doubt it…

I hadn't been able to feel anything up till now, but suddenly something wet was rolling down my cheek. A tear. It dripped off my chin and landed on the ground beneath me with an audible 'plop'.

Suddenly a warm sensation began to build in my chest. It got stronger and stronger until it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my ribcage. Laughter suddenly filled the air, sounding like a tinkling bell. A bright light flashed in front of me and I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid being blinded. When I opened them again there were two people standing in front of me: a boy and girl, hand in hand.

I recognised them.

They must have been around 15 years old. They both had sandy brown hair: the girl's down to just past her shoulders like mine; the boy's shorter in a very similar style to Jack's. They both had chocolate-brown eyes. The girl wore a pure white dress down to her knees with a slight ruffle at the hem and only thin straps over her shoulders holding it up, and white sandals on her feet. The boy had on a black shirt which just covered his shoulders and black pants the same length as Jack's. He had on black slip-on shoes, almost like a child's gym shoes.

They were both smiling at me. The girl let go of the boy's hand and walked towards me. She hugged me when she reached me. My arms automatically hugged her back, and for some reason I was crying. Why the heck was I crying? Maybe because I thought I'd never see another person again. Maybe because I thought nobody would ever hug me again.

"Thank you," she murmured into my ear before pulling back. She must have seen that I was crying and she smiled again before wiping my tears away with her thumb.

I finally found my voice. "For what?" I asked, the words coming out stupidly croaky.

She was still smiling kindly at me as she stepped away from me and back towards the boy.

"For avenging us," she said. "For using our powers to finally defeat Jacobi once and for all."

I opened my mouth to protest but the boy held up a hand to stop me. "We know you weren't the one to actually deal the final blow," he said, "but if it wasn't for you then Jack, North, the Sandman and Bunnymund wouldn't have been able to actually defeat him."

"We also know you acted pretty recklessly," the girl chipped in, folding her arms over her chest and grinning, "but the main thing is you only did so to protect your friends. You're a true Guardian, Annabelle."

She uncrossed her arms and took hold of the boy's hand again. The boy shot me a grin which reminded me of Jack.

"Tell Jack I say thanks too, okay?" he asked.

Before I could answer he turned away from me, as did the girl, and the started to walk away.

"Wait!" I called out. "What're your names?"

The girl turned her head back round to look at me.

"North told you, didn't he?" she smiled. "Our names were lost over time."

Before I could say anything else, I could feel myself fading. My eyes closed over on their own accord and the original Destined Spirits were lost from my sight.

* * *

Cold. Actually, scrap that. Not cold. Freezing. Absolutely freaking freezing.

I slowly opened my eyes. All I could see was a mass of white hair and all I could hear was sobbing.

Jack was still crying. Crying for me.

I moved my eyes without moving any other part of my body. I saw Bunny and Tooth kneeling on the ground next to me, both of them with silent tears running down their cheeks, their heads bowed sombrely.

Aw man, they all thought I was dead, didn't they? How long had I been out? Somehow I remembered everything: the sounds of the fight, Jack apologising over and over again, being in that awful, silent place, meeting the original Destined Spirits, everything.

The sounds of Jack crying broke my heart. I had to comfort him. Without another thought I moved my arm round his waist to hold him. As soon as he felt the movement he pulled away, his eyes red with the crying, his face tear-streaked, still with the large cut on his forehead, his mouth gaping.

"A…Anna?" he whispered as if he couldn't believe it.

Bunny and Tooth's heads shot up to stare at me, their faces looking just as shocked as Jack's.

Jack's bottom lip began to quiver. He slowly reached out to touch my hair. I just sat there, feeling tears of my own starting to fall.

"Anna," he repeated, sounding like it was the best word he had ever spoken.

"Jack…" I replied, my tears spilling over down onto my cheeks.

He brought his hands down from my hair to rest on my shoulder before he pulled me towards him. I returned his embrace, looping my arms round his waist and resting my head on his shoulder while he leant his head atop mine. We were both crying again, but this time it wasn't tears of sorrow. It was tears of pure joy.

Jack lifted his head off of mine and I pulled my face away from his now tear-stained hoodie. He looked deep into my eyes before leaning forwards and kissing me with just as much force as he had before I'd fallen unconscious. Only this time, I was able to kiss him back properly.

I'm not sure how long we held that kiss for; my head was in a bit of a spin. All I know is that we were only just running out of air when Bunny coughed uncomfortably. We broke away, both of us smiling widely before I turned to Bunny and Tooth. I leant over to hug Bunny and he inched back slightly.

"You ain't gonna do…you know…_that _to me, are ya?" he asked worriedly.

I burst out laughing and lightly tapped him on the nose. "No worries there Bunny, promise."

He grinned and leant forward again allowing me to hug him, and he hugged me back. I then turned to Tooth, who I've never seen look more relieved in my life, and hugged her too. She hugged me back tightly.

Once all the reunions were over, I had a moment to think. Bunny's statement before I'd passed out slithered back into my mind.

"_If she falls unconscious she'll probably be mortal when she wakes up. _If _she wakes up."_

Well, I _had _woken up at least. But was I mortal? I had no idea. What if I wasn't a spirit anymore? I would start to age, but Jack wouldn't. We wouldn't be able to be together anymore… I didn't _feel _any different, but I didn't know if that mattered.

Jack saw the worried look in my eyes and frowned.

"What is it?" he asked, taking my hand in his.

"I…I'm not sure if…if I still have powers or not…" I murmured.

I heard all three of them gasp.

"I mean, we all heard what Bunny said," I explained. "He said if I passed out I'd probably be mortal when I woke up. I've got no way of knowing if that's happened or not."

"Well," Bunny started, "you can still see all of us, right? Humans have to believe in us to see us. If you were human, you'd probably have to put some thought into being able to see us, but you didn't. You could still see us as soon as you came around, right?"

I nodded, but I was still unsure. Jack was starting to look worried too.

"I've got an idea. Why don't you try to grow something?" Tooth suggested.

I nodded again, and Jack squeezed my hand.

I extended my hand over a patch of snow next to us. I could feel everyone watching me intently. I'd never felt this kind of pressure before. What if it didn't work? Then what would we do?

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I pictured a flower blooming in my mind and tried to summon that familiar feeling of warm that came about when I created new life.

It never came.

I opened my eyes to see…the same patch of snowy ground. It hadn't worked.

I began to cry again. I'd lost my powers. I was mortal. The life I'd come to know and love over the past centuries was now over.

Before I could say or do anything else, Jack's lips found mine again. This kiss was different though. It wasn't in fear or elation. It was much softer, much more tender. It was a comforting kiss. I couldn't kiss him back though; I was still crying bitterly.

Suddenly though, I felt something. Something was flowing out of Jack, through his lips and his hand, which was still holding mind, into me. I can't really explain it. I just felt some kind of warmth coming from him. Odd since he was normally so cold to touch.

Then came the other kind of warmth. The warmth I felt when I caused something to grow. The warmth of spring.

I heard Bunny and Tooth gasp. Jack and I pulled apart and looked around us, the two of us gasping as well. The ground around us was glowing. Slowly the snow began to melt and flowers started to bloom.

I looked up at Jack, my mouth hanging open. His was the same before it split into a grin. He jumped up, bringing me with him, before pulling me over to a patch of ground still covered in snow.

"Try it again," he urged me. "Try it yourself."

I nodded, my confidence restored, and I held my hand out over the ground and closed my eyes again. I breathed slowly and steadily, spreading my fingers out.

I felt the warmth.

I heard Jack sigh in relief before he started to laugh. I opened my eyes to see a patch of daffodils growing under where my hand had been.

I turned to Jack with a huge grin on my face. He pulled me towards him and hugged me, picking me up and swinging me around. I laughed too.

I still had my powers. I was still a spirit.

I was still with Jack.

* * *

**AN: Sorry that this is a bit shorter than other chapters!**

**Anyway, I wanted to ask you guys a few things. First off, if any of you guys are good at drawing, I was wondering if you could maybe try to draw Anna? Either as she normally is or as she looks after she's swapped powers with Jack? It's just because 1. I can't draw to save myself, and 2. I was reading another fanfic where the author asked if people could raw her OC and she got some pretty awesome drawings! If any of you would like to draw Anna, there are descriptions of her in the prologue and in chapter 5 (the one called Destined Spirits). Please PM me links to any drawings you do or if you have any questions about what she looks like! Thank you guys!**

**The other thing was if you guys have any questions at all about this story, like where I got ideas from, or just about me or my writing in general, then please ask. The next chapter is (sadly) going to be the last chapter, so I'd like to answer any questions you've got then!**

**Thank you all so much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!**


	17. Chapter 16 - Guardian of Friendship

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I can't believe this is it. The last chapter…**

**I don't want to get into the sad stuff now! I'll talk about all that stuff at the end of the chapter. For now, enjoy! Please review with your final thought of this story!**

**Inspiration for this chapter came from the songs "To the Fairies They Draw Near Pt.2" by Lorenna McKennitt from the Tinkerbell movie (don't judge me! It is an awesome film!) and "Stronger As One" by Lara Wright. Seriously, if you listen to the first song then you can basically picture the second half of this chapter in your head, or I can anyway! Also, in the middle of writing this chapter that song came on my iPod while it was on shuffle. Spooky!**

**This chapter is dedicated to…YOU! That's right; you reading this right now! No matter if you've been here since I first posted the prologue, you're reading this a year after I've uploaded the final instalment or anywhere in between, this chapter is to thank each and every one of you, whether I know you in real life or not. Thank you all so much! I love all of you!**

* * *

**Chapter 16 – Guardian of Friendship**

North had brought the sleigh back and he and Sandy had been as relieved to see me as Tooth and Bunny had been. During the hugs Jack refused to let go of my hand. When we got into the sleigh he still wouldn't let go. It was like he was scared to be more than a few inches away from me. I wasn't complaining though; I was squeezing his hand as tightly as he was squeezing mine.

We sat at the back of the sleigh together, our hands still intertwined, my head resting on his shoulder. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy were in the seats in front of us, each of them turning round to grin at us every now and then. North was, of course, driving the sleigh, letting out the occasional 'Ho ho ho,' when he did a flip or a drop. Everyone was happy, which was a nice change from the sadness everyone had been experiencing only a few minutes ago.

"I spoke to them," I murmured to Jack, not really wanting the others to hear.

Jack turned his head towards me. "Spoke to who?"

"The Destined Spirits."

He properly turned round to face me. "What? When?"

I sat up. "When I was unconscious. I thought I was dead," – I squeezed Jack's hand a little tighter when I said that since I could see on his face the pain it caused him to think about that – "and then they appeared and spoke to me. The girl thanked me for avenging them, and the boy told me to tell you the same."

I smiled slightly. "You know, they kind of looked like us."

Jack grinned. "You mean the boy was quite the handsome devil?"

I laughed and playfully punched his arm before we resumed our earlier position of me with my head resting on his shoulder.

"I still wonder why they chose us…" Jack wondered aloud.

I shrugged. "Something tells me we'll never know."

We soon reached the workshop and I quickly jumped out of the sleigh, Jack close behind me still holding onto my hand. We weaved around the yetis, dodging the elves scampering around our feet, till we reached the elevator which would take us up to the platform next to the globe. I was shaking with impatience as it rose far too slowly. I would have rather just flown up but I knew Jack would say I was too weak after what had happened, and I couldn't ask him to carry me up; he'd done enough already.

Eventually, after what felt like a lifetime, we reached the platform and burst out of the elevator. Before I could even place two fingers in my mouth to whistle I was bombarded by Cheddar and Nibbles, closely followed by the rest of the robins. I had to let go of Jack's hand to shield my face from being smothered by feathers.

North and the others finally caught up to us and they all laughed, as did Jack. As I looked over at them I noticed for the first time that Tooth was holding my staff. I vaguely remembered Jack bending down to pick it up at one point before North and Sandy had flown back with the sleigh when I was still jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas day over the fact I hadn't lost my powers, but Tooth had shoved him out of the way, saying maybe it was better he didn't touch it in case we swapped powers again without meaning to. Jack had agreed and let Tooth carry it.

Tooth noticed me looking at my staff and smiled before waling over to me, holding it out. The staff was nearly the same size as her.

"I think maybe you should have this back," she smiled.

I saw Jack frowning out of the corner of my eye. I smiled to reassure him.

"Don't worry Jack," I said while I took my staff back from Tooth. "I'm not going to be using my powers for anything major anytime soon. It's already spring so my work's pretty much done for this year."

Bunny nodded. "What you need is a vacation, mate."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "That's not actually a bad idea," he mused.

Suddenly his eyes lit up. "And I've got the perfect place in mind!"

Tooth sighed wistfully. I looked down at her.

"What's up Tooth?"

"It's just…you're so lucky Anna," she pouted. "You've got someone to look after you and whisk you away on a romantic vacation." She sighed again. "I wish I had that."

I gave her a quick hug. "You will one day Tooth! The robins who went to Ireland told me that the Leprechaun was asking after you!"

Tooth's eyes lit up and Bunny shook his head. "That little prankster? No way Tooth. You can much better than him!"

I looked over at Sandy and he was nodding in agreement. I smirked.

"Looks like you've got two admirers right here Tooth!" I announced, grinning and nodding at Bunny and Sandy.

Bunny just snorted and rolled his eyes at me. Sandy actually looked embarrassed and turned away from us slightly. I grinned again and looked at Tooth to see if she'd seen Sandy's reaction. She had, and she was blushing a little, but was smiling.

* * *

"Come on you slow pokes! Keep up!"

"Jack, they're just babies! They can't fly that fast yet!"

Jack rolled his eyes and sped on over the crystal clear water. I sighed in frustration and slowed down slightly to wait for Rudi, Dolly, Ivy and the newly hatched chicks. They were only a few weeks old but they'd all been begging for us to take them out somewhere so they could fly properly and not just wiz around the hideout. I know normally baby birds can't fly after only a few weeks, but we had magic fairy dust to help us speed things along. We (we being me, Rudi and the other birds who were now parents) had agreed that they could come with us as long as they didn't try and fly too fast. Of course there were no such restrictions on the older birds, and Cheddar and Nibbles were leading a large group of other robins who were darting over the water chasing after Jack. Heather, one of Rudi and Ivy's three new chicks tried to break away to join them, but Rudi sharply nudged his daughter back into the group that were flying more slowly.

I watched Jack flying over the beautiful loch and I smiled. When Jack had said 'vacation' what he actually meant was 'I've decided that people in Scotland have suffered through winter for long enough so we're going to go give them spring and I need your help to do it.' Not exactly the "romantic vacation" Tooth had been picturing. She would have been so disappointed.

But for me, this was perfect. I was outside in the fresh air, flying through beautiful scenery with my best friends and boyfriend. The hills around the loch were still glistening with snow, the early morning sunrise reflecting off the water, which was completely calm except for the occasional splash made by one of the robins as their wings skidded over the surface.

Dolly saw my glances at Jack and chirped for me to go join him. I came to a stop, as did the birds, and turned to look at her.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I don't want to leave you guys if you want help looking after the babies."

Heather chirped that she wasn't a baby, but a stern look from Rudi silenced her. I smiled. Rudi was just being a dad. I knew that Heather would grow up to be a complete 'Daddy's girl'.

Dolly nodded and chirped again for me to go after Jack. I smiled and thanked her, warned the chicks to listen to their parents and sped off towards Jack. He saw me coming and grinned before speeding up towards a pine forest on the banks. I took off after him and soon caught up. We weaved through the trees, which Jack had gotten a lot better at recently since he'd been hanging about at the tree hideout a lot.

Suddenly there was a huge rumbling noise coming from behind us. Jack and I both looked at each other before slowly turning our heads round to see…a huge herd of red deer galloping right towards us!

We were flying pretty close to the ground, and since we didn't want to get trampled underfoot by stampeding deer I grabbed Jack's hand and shot sharply upwards pulling him behind me. We got up to above the tall evergreen trees and breathed a sigh of relief before we both started to laugh. We both started to fly over the herd of deer until we realised they were leading us away from the loch and the robins so we turned around and flew back.

Once we regrouped with the robins, the birds and I started to get to work. The chicks stayed with Jack while Rudi, Dolly, Ivy, Nibbles, Cheddar, Spark and all the other robins began to bring spring to this little patch of winter that remained. We spread out and melted the snow on the surrounding hills, grew flowers on the banks and knocked away the ice hanging off of the sides and roofs of the few houses dotted about.

Some of the water at the banks of the loch was still frozen over, so using my fairy dust to miniaturise myself since I would be flying close to one of the houses, I flew down and tapped the ice with my staff, melting it instantly.

I heard a gasp behind me and turned around. There was a little girl standing there staring right at me. Not through me, _at _me. She could see me. She had dark blonde hair which was tied up in a high ponytail and shining blue eyes. She was wearing a big pink coat with a white scarf and matching mittens, along with pink sparkly wellington boots. She must have only been five or six years old.

Even though I had gotten used to not being seen by people over the years since I had the robins and my other friends like Jack, Tooth and the others, a shiver of joy still went down my spine when I realised that a child believed in me.

The girl was still standing there with her mouth gaping open. I smiled kindly and flew up to her, still in my tiny form.

"What's your name?" I asked softly.

She took a few moments to compose herself before she answered. "I'm Simone," she said shyly.

I smiled again. "I'm Annabelle. Simone's a very pretty name."

She blushed slightly at the compliment. "I think Annabelle's much prettier."

I laughed. "Thank you for saying that."

I looked up at her house and saw two figures standing at a window. One taller one was helping a smaller one get their coat on.

"Do you have a brother or sister?" I asked Simone.

She nodded. "My brother. He's a year older than me. Daddy said he's going to take us out on the boat before he has to go to work."

I turned my head to see a small wooden boat half-way up a make-shift slipway going from the house's driveway down to the water. I turned back to Simone.

"Does your brother believe in fairies?" I asked.

Simone shook her head. "No, he thinks I'm silly. But I saw the tooth fairy once! I know I did!"

I smiled at her. "I bet you did! The tooth fairy's very kind."

Her eyes lit up. "You know her?"

I nodded. "And Santa, the Easter bunny, the Sandman and Jack Frost. We're all real."

She gasped even more and clapped her hands in glee. I smiled again as an idea formed in my head.

"I'm going to give you a present," I told Simone.

I turned and flew towards a nearby tree which was already growing its leaves. I pulled a leaf off and blew into it, filling it with fairy dust before tying it together like a little bag. I blew some more fairy dust over it do it wouldn't break easily before flying back to Simone and handing it to her.

"This bag contains some of my fairy dust," I explained, dropping it into her outstretched hand. "Show it to your brother. Then he will believe in fairies."

Simone nodded eagerly before turning to run back into her house. She stopped just before her door and smiled again.

"Thank you Annabelle!" she called happily before darting into her house.

I grinned again before flying up to the window I'd seen the two silhouettes in. Simone was already there and was holding the bag up to her brother who was slightly taller than her. He was shaking his head. Simone sighed and her shoulders dropped before she spotted me outside the window. Her face lit up again and she pointed to me. Her brother turned around but he looked right through me. He shook his head again and looked like he was going to leave the room.

For Simone's sake I had to try something, so taking a leaf out of Jack's book I blew on the window, covering it with my pink fairy dust and proceeded to draw a small portrait of myself on the window. Simone saw what I was doing and grabbed her brother's arm, forcing him to turn round. He saw the picture on the window and his eyes widened like he couldn't believe what he was looking at. He blinked rapidly and his mouth dropped open. _Now _he could see me.

I smiled and waved at him. He slowly waved back, a grin growing on his face. I gave them both a wink before I sped off to catch up with Jack and the robins. Those two would be believers for life now.

That was the moment I figured out who I was. My centre. The reason I loved doing this was so children could come back outside after winter and play with their friends again. Even when we were fighting Jacobi, I would have done anything to save Jack and the others. My friends were the most important thing in the world to me.

So that's who I am. The Guardian of Friendship.

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I dipped my hand in the water as I sped over it, Jack slightly ahead of me. I laughed when it splashed up and hit my face causing droplets to drip off my nose and back into the loch.

I flew up straight for a moment before coming back down till I was hovering upright just above the water. To someone standing further away it would have looked like I was standing on the water.

One of the things I sometimes have to do as the spirit of spring is to bring water to plants that might have a hard time getting it otherwise. Because of this job one of the things I can do with my staff is use it to bring water up and float it over to where it needs to go. Take full advantage of this I began to spin around over the water, whirling my staff above my head and causing the water to spin with it. I laughed out loud at the fact I was dancing with the water. I couldn't help it – I had to let my happiness out in some form.

I couldn't believe how much my life had changed in the past few months. I had gained new friends, become closer with the ones I already had, became a guardian, and achieved things I could have never imagined. And despite the fear, the pain and the near heartbreak that I'd encountered on this journey, I wouldn't have changed any of it for anything.

I brought my staff back down to my side and the water returned to the loch. I turned to see Jack actually walking on the loch, since the water under his feet turned to ice when he stood on it. I rolled my eyes. He was wrecking my hard work!

I grinned as I sneaked up behind him. I tapped the blocks of ice he had left behind with my staff until I was right behind him. I tapped him on the shoulder so that her turned around before I shoved into the freezing-cold loch. I double over in laughter, the robins joining in the hilarity by using their wings to splash Jack when his head and shoulders emerged from the loch. His face had a dark grin on it.

"Oh, you are _so _dead," he muttered before he cupped his hands together in the water and blew on them, turning the water into a ball of ice.

I sped up out of the way before Jack could throw it. When he did I aimed very carefully with my staff and knocked the snowball away like a baseball. Thus began a _very_ awesome day of snowball-wars, tag and dive-bombing into the loch.

We played out there for the rest of the day.

* * *

As night fell on the loch Jack and I were standing on one of the banks watching the robins construct make-shift nests for their chicks. We had planned to fly back to the hideout but it was too late now and all the birds, especially the chicks, were really tired and wouldn't be able to make it back. Rudi had finished his nest and gazed lovingly down at Heather and her two brothers. I smiled. He really was a great dad.

I noticed Jack was looking at me strangely when I turned back to look at him.

"What's wrong?" I asked, taking hold of his hand.

He took a deep breath. "When I thought you had died," he started, "I realised I had something I needed to tell you. And if I don't tell you know then I'll probably never get the courage up to say it again."

He brushed some hair out my eyes and rested his hand on my cheek, looking deep into my eyes. "I love you Annabelle."

My heart sped up as he lent in and kissed me. When we broke apart I smiled.

"I love you too, Jack Frost."

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**IT'S ALL OVER! *cries***

**You all have no idea how much I've loved writing this story. I want to thank every single person who has read, favourited, followed and reviewed this story; I love you all so much.**

**I have one final surprise for you all which I will hopefully be able to post next weekend. In the meantime if you want to read more Rise of the Guardians stories then please check out those by Deathly-Hunger-Jackson and Believe733. They are awesome!**

**Please leave any questions you have about where I got ideas from etc, as they will be answered in the surprise!**

**Thank you all again so much! Hugs from Scotland!**


	18. Thank You!

**Before you all get excited, this ain't a proper chapter. This is just an author's note thank you thingy. This is also going to be used to tell you guys some pretty important stuff!**

**So, I know I already did this at the end of the last chapter, but I seriously want to thank you guys again. You all have no idea how much it means to me that you like the stuff I write. I'm not so good at putting this stuff down in writing so I'm just going to let you guys hear me say it!**

**As I have learnt, this website doesn't like people posting links to other webpages in chapters. So, if you would be so kind as to go to my profile (which they **_**do**_** allow you to put links on) then you will see at the top, along with a link to Deathly-Hunger-Jackson's picture of Annabelle (thanks again for that by the way!) there is a YouTube link. Said YouTube link goes to a video I have done to thank you all. **

**I know that it's not conventional, and I've defiantly not seen anyone else on here do a YouTube video to thank people, but I just kinda wanted to, so WHAT THE HECK. **

**Also, there's some stuff revealed in the video which I hope you guys will be excited about!**

**In other news, I was asked where I got the idea for the Destined Spirits thing. First of all, I got the idea for Annabelle because when I was a kid I was obsessed with fairies, and as such I started to write letters to the supposed fairy at the bottom of my garden. Luckily my mum caught on to what I was doing and started to write back for me. The fairy she came up with was called Annabelle. That's pretty much where the similarities to the fairy back then and the fairy in this story end. That Annabelle was normal fairy size, had a purple dress and short black hair (mum found a picture on the internet).**

**The Destined Spirits idea came from the fact that I loved Jack in the film, and thought his powers were rather awesome. Whenever I see a film or TV show, or read a book, I tend to picture my own character and place them in the film/TV show/book and think about what they would do in the situations made in the story. When I was watching Rise of the Guardians I started thinking about Annabelle, and I automatically paired her with Jack (since I liked Jack myself and Annabelle was basically me placing myself in the story). Due to this I started to think about how her spring powers would work with Jack's winter one, and why a villain would target them. One idea led to another until I finally thought "What if they could swap powers?"**

**This then made me think more about how that would work. Why would they be able to swap powers? What dangers would that create? How would the villain know about this ability? After a lot of thinking whilst lying in bed late at night when I couldn't sleep (which is when I usually get my good ideas) I got the details cleaned up, stuck it down in a note on my iPod and started to write!**

**For the millionth time, thank you guys so much for everything. I'm so glad you've enjoyed reading this story, and I really hope you like the video. Bye for now!**


	19. Sequel!

**So, the sequel is up! It's called Struggle for the Seasons. I hope you all enjoy it! Thank you again for your support for this story, and I hope you support the sequel just as much!**


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